RDF Life
by weebee
Summary: Oh, why won't this just die? Not a rewrite, barely even a revision. I just don't want to get messaged about it again. New chapters updated whenever I feel like formatting them. Thank you, come again.
1. Chapter 1, It came from Weebee's Archive

RDF Life, by Weebee.

Summary: Ranma ends up on Macross Island a few weeks before the SDF-1 launches, due to Genma's stupidity. Now he has to deal with the war and his part in it.

I Don't Own Ranma Or Robotech Macross so leave me to my crossover writing shame.

Post Ranma manga, Pre Zentraedi attack.

Author's forward. If you skip this, Don't say I didn't warn you!

Y'know what, I wish this fic never existed, I Really do... Having said that, it seems that a certain group of people actually LIKE the very first, and very worst, fanfic I've ever written. I get a new PM every month or so, from SOMEONE who wants to read this thing, and I honestly don't know why. I gave up on really re-writing this thing to bring it up to specs with my other work, but this version does have two major improvements. 1, a few of the smaller, less story changing grammar errors HAVE been corrected, and 2, I've systomatically reformatted the whole thing, chapter by chapter, for easier readability. Having said that, here come the warnings.

WARNING: This was a first fic, and it shows. I mean, seriously, I can't even read through the whole thing at once anymore without cringing myself half to death. As long as you procede under the assumption that this thing's gunna suck, you're welcome to procede. Review all you want, bt I'd either make it humor, blind praise (I highly doubt this one,) or flames. C&C's futile, since my writing style's improved DRASTICALLY since this thing was written...

Oh, and I'd really like to see this thing MSTed someday... too bad EWIC's pretty much dead...

Okay boys and girls, here we go. Have a nice day.

Chapter 1. He's HERE!

Roy Fokker walked into his small 1 bedroom apartment on Macross island and dropped his hat on the table. Looking around he spotted a small white envelope, stuck under the frame of the front door. Yanking it free he opened it up and began to read.

"To: Roy Fokker. APT 142 Central towers.

Sinar street. Macross City, Macross Island.

From: The Macross city government, police division.

Dear Sir.

Due to the infraction you committed as of 4 days ago (Code 1442, Damage of public property,) and your admission of guilt of the crime, You have been given three possible sentences to choose from.

You may pay a fine of 1,500,000 Y to the town for replacement of damaged public property."

Roy grumbled about not having enough money at the moment to buy a decent meal.

"You may serve a sentence of 800 hours of community service."

"Yeah, on a military time schedule."

"or you may choose to take in, as part of a new program from the government, a child that children's aid has had problems placing for a period of from 6 to 8 months."

Roy dropped the letter in disbelief. "a kid? They can't be serious, but I can't pay the fine and I can't get enough time off to do THAT much community service so..."

HR.

Ranma Saotome scowled. "You can't be serious! I'm a seventeen year old and children's aid wants to remove me from pop's custody?"

"well, that's what they said." Kasumi Tendo replied evenly. "They said that due to a complaint of serious abuse, I believe it had something to do with cats, that was lodged several years ago they have to take you out of your father's custody until you become a legal adult. Fortunately, they said that that will be in about 6 months so this is only temporary."

As MR. Tendo created his own small lake in the background, Ranma shrugged and said, "Well if it's only for a few months. I guess I could use the opportunity to train outside of Nerima for a while, though I'll miss you and Akane a bit."

Kasumi smiled at Ranma, retrieving his backpack from where she had previously placed it near the door. "Be sure to call us when you get to wherever they are sending you Ranma-Kun. I packed all of your things for you and a light snack for you to eat on the trip.

HR.

Ranma packed all of his belongings into the back of the black and silver painted van that had shown up to pick him up 5 minutes earlier and waved at all of his friends that had gathered to wish him a good trip.

Even Ryoga had refrained from his usual "Ranma Prepare to die!" and only said "Good riddance!"

"Yeah, I'll miss ya too pig boy." The pigtailed martial artist grinned, ignoring the lost boy's glair as he walked over to Akane, who was standing with her sisters. "I guess I'll see ya later, Tomboy." He said, trying to be casual.

"Yeah…" Akane returned, looking away. "Don't go flirting with every girl while you're there, got it?" she continued, however there wasn't any heat in the comment.

As Ranma was heading for the van himself, he could have sworn he had heard a whispered "I'll miss you," come from the dark haired tomboy, however when his head snapped back she was looking away, talking to Nabiki.

"Hey kid, we have to get going!" Came the call from the, causing Ranma to look forward again and walk to the vehicle, jumping into the front seat.

As he rode off into the streets of Tokyo, Ranma heard the parting shouts of almost everyone that he had met in Nerima. It was too bad that he didn't know that he wouldn't be seeing them for A LOT longer than 6 months.

HR -2 days later.-

Roy Fokker waited on the front steps of his apartment complex for this kid that he was supposed to take care of to show up. "what was his name... Ransu? Ranko? AH, Ranma! That was it. Don't wanna get this kid pissed at me in less than 5 minutes. I think that'd even be a record for foot in mouth Fokker." Roy laughed to himself as he saw a Taxi cab pull up to the curb and come to a stop.

The door opened and a youngish looking man with a pigtail hopped out, a really big pack on his back. "Thanks for the ride." he said as he paid the cabby. He walked up to Roy, who was still sitting on the step and said, "Hi. I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm lookin' for a Roy Fokker."

"uh...yeah. I'm Roy Fokker. Aren't you supposed to be a kid? I was told that I'd have to put up a "Child" for a few months."

"Yeah. about that. Ya see. apparently there's some stupid law that says that I aint a legal adult for about six months n' that 'cuz of somethin' my pops did a few years ago I aint allowed to see or speak to him 'till I am. So they sent me here."

Roy blinked. "So what exactly did your "Pops" do?"

"he he...um. A lot of stuff. What I think they mean is the Neko-Ken. It's a martial arts technique where you wrap the student in fish products and drop him into a pit full of starving cats. a whole buncha times."

Roy blinked again. "Well... That's...um disturbing. Anyways. Let's get your stuff inside. Apparently You'll be staying around here for a while."

Ranma shrugged, picked up the REALLY big backpack and walked into the house.

HR

Roy Fokker watched in a state of shock as his new house guest demolished the entire contents of a large bento that had been packed in his backpack in the time of about 15 seconds.

"Ah Kasumi's cooking really hits the spot." The aforementioned house guest said, with a burp as he put the wreckage of the meal into Roy's garbage bag.

Roy just kept opening and closing his mouth until he croaked out "H-how'd you do that? Do you eat that much all the time?"

"Anything goes martial arts Food-foo combined with a modified version of the parlay du foie gras technique." The boy explained. "As for eatin' this much all the time, Nah. I can go without food for quite a while. This is just how much fills me up."

Roy just grimaced as he realized that his food bill was going to go up while this kid was here.

As Roy despaired over food bills, Ranma debated as to whether to tell him about the curse or not. This quickly became a moot issue as, with the uncanny accuracy with which all Jusenkyo cursed people are familiar, a hurled water balloon from a kid's party across the street came flying into Roy's apartment window and straight towards the nearest water magnet. "C'mon, THIS is ridiculous." Ranma groused to herself as she peeled the fragments of the exploded water balloon out of her damp red hair and noticed Roy staring at her in dumb shock.

"Erm...eh...Wouldya believe Ranma just ran out the door and I'm his sister?" Ranma questioned hopefully. Roy just shook his head before passing out on the floor. Ranma sighed.

HR

"Bwahahahahaha!" Roy laughed almost hysterically.

"it aint all THAT funny, y'know!" Ranma groused as she put a pot of water on to boil.

"Hahahaha..." Roy continued laughing, until he managed to regain enough composure to speak. "You expect me to believe that? That's the funniest thing I ever heard. "Cursed springs," I mean come on…"

Ranma growled.

Roy's fresh disbelieving comment quickly died in his throat as he saw Ranma dump a boiling kettle of water over her head and resume his male form.

"You still laughin' now?" Ranma said, annoyed. Roy just blinked... again. Something told him that he would be doing a lot of that while this kid was living here.

HR

The next day, Roy walked into his apartment, cursing his new trainees to high heaven. "You'd think they'd know the difference between a practice target and the control tower but NOOO!."

He stomped towards the back room to crash on his bed and froze at the sound of loud crashes coming from his backyard. He ran to the window, looked out and began cursing not just his students but the Kami for having FAR too much fun at his expense. Now he was seeing things.

His new houseguest, who had only been around for about a day, was hopping from wall to wall of his enclosed backyard, making a loud THUMP every time his feet slammed into the concrete. "What the HELL are you doing?" He yelled out the window to the wildly jumping martial artist in his backyard.

"Speed training. Been tryin' ta work up my midair skills. Oh I borrowed those cinder blocks that you had your alarm clock on. Hope you don't mind." Ranma said, stopping in place for a moment to answer the question.

As Roy wondered what in the world the kid could need cinder blocks for, he finally figured out what was making that thumping sound as Ranma bent down in order to untie the large stone blocks that were tied to his feet. Roy just put a hand to his head and stalked back into the kitchen, muttering about a REALLY strong drink.

HR

Ranma hopped from rooftop to rooftop in Macross City, trying to find something to do. That Fokker guy was pretty nice to let him stay in his apartment but the place was rather empty and he couldn't even practice any of his more advanced martial arts there.

As he hopped, Ranma thought of all the people back in Nerima. "Wonder if Akane has tried to cook anythin' lately." He thought with a shudder at her last attempt. Then again, maybe without him around to take the flack her family would put in an effort to try and stop her from cooking, or even try to teach her to do it better. As he thought this, he caught a flicker of a face that he recognized in the street below. "Nah. Couldn't be." He thought as he jumped down from the roof top.

"Hey Hiro! Long time no see man!" Ranma hollered.

Hiroshi Neomoto stopped in his tracks and whirled around. "Hey Ranma. What are you doin' here. Come to get more Fiancées?"

"Nah man, just more of pop's stupidity, What else?" Ranma said, having to give no more explanation than that. "Anyways, Why are you 'round here. I mean you disappeared from school a few weeks ago. Me n' Dai were goin' nuts tryin to make sure that ol' Coconuts hadn't kidnapped you or somethin'."

Hiroshi Laughed. "Nah. My dad just got transferred is all. He's a JSDF fighter pilot and there's a new squad being formed out here with some really cool new planes." Suddenly, the brown haired boy had an idea. "Hey! I can show you 'em if ya want."

Ranma shrugged. "Ya caught me on a bored day. I aint that into planes but let's go see 'em." Hiroshi walked off towards the air force base, Ranma following close behind.

HR

Hiroshi and Ranma walked up to the guard post. "Hey Tojo! It's Hiroshi. Can you let me in?"

"Hey Neomoto! Sure. Just a sec." As the guard was preparing to open the gate, he noticed the person standing with Hiroshi. "Who's your friend, she's cute."

Hiroshi raised an eyebrow and turned to Ranma, who had just managed to find the only water fountain in Macross city and promptly get sprayed.

Ranma shrugged. "Feh, I said I was a water magnet."

"Oh she's just a friend of mine from school. Her and her brother are down for a while. Oh and the brother's got the over protective thing down pretty well so you probably shouldn't hit on her." Ranma threw an appreciative glance at Hiroshi before the guard shrugged and let them through the front entrance.

HR.

Ranma stopped in her tracks to gawk at the huge bulk of the visitor, Parked next to the main base complex. "Hey Hiro. What in hell is that?"

"Oh that's the SDF-1. Dad says it was an alien ship and the government rebuilt it. C'mon let's go out to the flying field n' see dad's flight wing. These planes are so cool, I'm thinking of joining up just to fly them." Ranma followed Hiroshi to the main flying field, where she saw, "Hey Fokker!"

Roy stopped in his dressing down of Cadet Neomoto for his incredibly stupid stunt of switching from battleoid to fighter mode 2 feet off of the ground and turned to see Ranma, standing with Neomoto's son next to the tarmac. "Hey Saotome, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Ah, one of my old school buddies is here and he was going to the complex. I was bored so I tagged along." The redhead explained, shrugging casually.

"One of your school buddies?" Fokker asked, throwing a questioning glance at Neomoto.

"I don't think we've met miss." Mr. Neomoto asked. "Are you Roshi's girlfriend, Yuka, I keep hearing about?"

Ranma and Hiroshi both burst out laughing at this. "No sir. You've met me. I believe you referred to me as "That punk Hiroshi hangs out with at school, putting unbelievable stories in his head." Ranma chuckled.

Mister Neomoto boggled. "Y-you were telling the truth about that curse thing then?"

"Yep!" Ranma said with a smirk, whereupon Neomoto shook his head and said, "Sir, I think I NEED that trip to the meds now."

Roy began laughing hysterically and clapped Ranma on the back. "You're alright kid. I've been trying to get that guy to go see the med techs all day about an eye problem, you just walk up and say like 5 words and he goes."

Ranma just shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "It's a gift."

"Yeah, a gift to make people go nuts." Hiroshi said, to which he got a playful knock to the elbow from the redhead.

"Anyways. I'm goin' to see if I can get some hot water. I'll be back in a bit." Ranma said as she ran off, heading towards what looked like a Chinese restaurant in the distance.

Roy looked at Hiroshi and said "you still going to join up kid?"

"Yeah, I'm probably going to sign on today or tomorrow. Why?" Hiroshi asked, curiously.

"Well. I've been watching Ranma since he showed up. He has some serious potential for aircraft. I mean some of our best pilots are martial artists and he says he's the best there is."

Hiroshi grinned. "He aint lying. Has he shown you his Chi blast thingy yet?"

"Chi what?... Never mind. Anyways what I'm asking is if you can see if you can get him to join up with you." Roy explained.

Hiroshi grinned again. "Oh, That'll be easy. All I gotta say is "Hey Ranma. I bet that if we both signed up at once, I'd get to a higher rank than you." He'd take it as a challenge and immediately sign on to prove me wrong."

Roy blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Oh yeah. You wouldn't believe this but there was this one time..." Hiroshi said, falling back to the role he usually had at school, where he told most of the newer students all about the weirdness that surrounded Ranma in order to keep them from going insane when they saw it.

HR

Ranma walked into the small restaurant on base and up to the counter. "Hi! I'm Minmei, May I take your order?"

"Yeah, Can I get a glass of hot water?"

Minmei Blinked. "That's all miss?"

"Yeah, that's all." Ranma confirmed.

"Alright that'll be 50 Yen." Ranma dug around in her pocket and pulled out a fifty yen piece, that she had actually stolen from Ms. Hinako, and paid the waitress.

Accepting the hot water, Ranma walked into the small recessed alcove that was used for the washroom doors and pored it over her head. Straightening his Chinese shirt and toweling his hair dry, He walked out of the alcove and through the door.

HR.

As Ranma walked towards the landing field, he heard Roy shout, in a disbelieving voice "...Martial arts TEA CEREMONY?" He began chuckling as he picked up speed and ran towards the tarmac.

Roy and Hiroshi saw Ranma, now back to normal, pelting towards them and the VF-1D Training veritech fighter that they were standing in front of. "Hey guys! I'm back." he shouted as he put on the breaks and stopped just short of whacking his head off of the wing.

Roy laughed. "hey kid, be careful. Those planes are expensive and if you break the wing by whacking that hard skull of yours against it, Command'll have mine."

Ranma shrugged. "So anyways, what'cha doing?" "Mr. Fokker said he'd take us up in a VF-1D practice plane as "incentive" to consider joining the RDF."

Ranma grinned. "Sounds fun. I dono about joinin' the RDF though. I'd probably just accidentally insult the high commander or somethin'."

"Aw, I told you he'd say something like that Mr. Fokker. Anyways, I bet I could get higher up in the RDF than Ranma even if he DID join." Hiroshi said, pulling off a fair imitation of Ranma's classic overconfident smirk.

"Hey Hiro, is that a challenge?" Ranma said, with a raised eyebrow.

"Well yeah, since I KNOW I can't compete with you in martial arts, I'll just go another way. So ya up for it?"

"Sure. Stakes?" Ranma said, responding with the same smirk.

Hiroshi grinned, and without thinking, Said, "Loser sings "White reflection" On the base broadcasting system," with a chuckle.

Ranma began laughing hysterically. "Hiro, you do realize that I won't really mind that if I lose, which I won't. Got two words for you. Jusenkyo Curse. In fact, I once tried singing that in girl form out of boredom and sounded pretty good." Hiroshi Cursed as Fokker almost keeled over from laughter.

"Anyways…" Fokker said as he got his chuckles to a bare minimum, "Who's going up first."

"Let Hiro go up first." Ranma said. "He's the real flight lover here not me." Hiroshi grinned in thanks and hopped into the VF-1D.

Ranma watched in some aw as the VF-1D did things in the air that Saffron would have problems emulating. When he first saw the veritech transformation, his jaw almost hit his feet. The, Now guardian mode, veritech finally hit the ground again and an incredibly excited Hiroshi jumped out. "Man I have to fly one of those." Hiroshi said, with perhaps a little less enthusiasm than Ranma usually shows when faced with a cure to the curse...but not much less.

"Yeah, that thing looked pretty cool. Is it my turn to try it out?" Ranma said, with eagerness in his voice.

Roy chuckled. "What was that about this guy being the flight nut? That grin you got on right now after seeing me fly is big enough to land a harrier on."

Ranma laughed and scratched the back of his head. "It's just cool lookin' is all." he said.

Ranma secured the last strap on the flight suit he had had to borrow and put on the helmet. "All right, I'm ready to go Roy. Let's do it."

Roy checked his glove and helmet gyro units and started the Veritech. He was surprised when he heard Ranma muttering something. "What was that Ranma?"

"Oh...umm not much. Just a quick question. When did the government figure out how to do THIS to my chi sense?"

Roy looked puzzled. "Chi sense? What's that."

"You mean you don't know?" Ranma questioned, before continuing. "Well chi sensing allows you to feel an opponent's aura in a fight to know where they are but When you turned on the power, mine went NUTS. It's like we're sittin' inside a gigantic chi ball or something."

"Well I don't know much about martial arts but this bird does run on a new type of power source." Roy said, before dismissing the comments for now. "Anyways, let's get up into the air."

Roy cranked the throttles back and the Veritech taxied forward. He cranked them all the way up and it catapulted off of the runway. He liked doing that to trainees to scare the daylights out of them but Ranma didn't seem troubled at all. "OK Kid now it's time for some Midair fun." Roy said, with a laugh.

After about 20 minutes of flying in loops and patterns, Roy decided to have some fun. "Hey kid, You want to try flying this thing?"

"Roy, you call me kid one more time and I swear I'm gunna beat you but yeah I'll try it." Ranma said, annoyed.

Laughing, Roy did another one of his freak out the noobie tricks and flipped control over to the kid without telling him. To Roy's surprise, Ranma seemed to figure out the controls rather quickly, as the plane didn't start shaking or rolling, it kept on course and at steady speed. "Hey Kid, You sure you've never flown before? You're pretty good at it."

"Huh? Oh yeah. I Just watched you. I don't got any idea of how ta fly this thing. I just figured that all I had to do to keep goin straight n' level was hold the stick steady." Ranma explained, looking back at Roy for a moment.

Roy blinked. In fact that was not all that you had to do, you also had to correct for drift, which Ranma was doing. Then Roy caught a look at one of the new instruments that the scientists had installed. Called a "Reflex energy readout," it apparently displayed the pilot's Intuitive control over the plane. Roy always red as a yellow group of lines, apparently VERY good, as the scientists wouldn't stop talking about it but this kid red with a whole bunch of blue lines and some small bunches of yellow mixed in. If Roy had learned to read the instrument correctly, that meant that this kid had almost FULL mental control over the bird. Roy HAD to get this guy into the RDF, and he thought that he rather unorthodox, and technically against regulation, flight that he and Hiroshi had both participated in was sure to do so. "So Ki...er Ranma, how do you like the Veritech?"

Smirking, Ranma responded. "If it's this easy to fly, and can let me pull off that stuff you were doing earlier, this thing is damned cool!"

Roy smirked under his flight helmet. "Yet another one joins the flight nuts." he thought.

HR

Ranma and Hiroshi walked into the main office in the base command center, personal records in hand. The smiles on their faces told anyone who cared to look that they'd just been bitten by the flying bug, big time.

Ranma walked up to the front desk, dropped his papers on it and said, "Hi, I'm here to register in the RDF Pilot Training Program."

"All right son." The elderly man at the desk said. "You'll have to fill out these forms and bring them up to the front desk after you're done. In the meantime, I'll run your records and do the background checks. Please come back in 5 minutes."

Ranma walked over to the benches at the side of the room, pulled a pen out of...nowhere and began filling out the papers as he saw Hiroshi walking up to the desk out of the corner of his eye.

Five minutes later, Ranma had filled out the forms, only pausing for a second on the mother's maiden name question before remembering that it was "Himura" and another second to wonder if there was a "Special circumstances" box in the "Sex" aria, with a quiet chuckle.

He walked up to the desk and put down the forms. "All finished sir." He said, with barely suppressed enthusiasm. The sooner he got behind the controls of another one of those "Damned cool" planes the better.

"Alright son, aside from some rather ...odd records involving two Ranma Saotomes in Nerima, your background check was clean so you can now proceed on to the physical evaluation." The man said, handing Ranma a new form.

"Erm...where is that?" Ranma asked, uncertainly.

"You may wish to try the hall marked "Medical."" The man remarked, trying to repress a laugh.

"Thanks!" Ranma said, as he ran off down the hall.

HR.

As Ranma walked into the Medical wing of the command center, He noticed a Familiar skeleton standing in the window of one of the offices. "Is that what I think it is? well he did disappear a while ago." Ranma's thoughts were derailed as he slammed into a young dark blue haired woman that looked almost exactly like Akane. "Oh! I'm sorry miss. Guess I should've been watchin' where I was goin'."

"That's alright miss, I was lost in thought." Ranma blinked, and noticed some red hair hanging in front of her face. She pulled it back and then saw the culprit. The young woman's Iced Tea cup laying on the floor about 2 feet away.

Ranma growled. "How am I supposed to go for a physical NOW? I mean I want to join the military as a guy and my registry papers say Male so..." were her thoughts as she tried to think of a way to get a hold of some hot water. Then she had it. "I hope I'm right about who's office that is." she muttered under her breath as she moved towards the room with the skeleton in the window.

The door swung open and a brown haired man with glasses greeted Ranma with a surprised look on his face. "Oh! Hello Ranma, Long time no see."

"Hi doc. Say, I don't suppose you've got some hot water in there, Do you?" The redhead asked, hopefully.

Doctor Ono Tofu smiled kindly and ushered Ranma into his office. "These taps don't get very hot water but I think it's hot enough to change you back. So what're you doing here."

"Ah well. I saw those new veritech things and thought it'd be cool to learn how to fly one, so here I am."

Tofu handed Ranma a cup of hot water, which she dumped over her head. "Thanks doc! I wouldn't have bothered you but it'd look a bit strange if a Ranma Saotome, Registered male walked in as a short Redhead."

"Don't worry Ranma, I understand. Good luck in your examinations. I'm certain you'll make the Medical requirements." Tofu said, waving as Ranma exited the room.

HR

Ranma walked out of the Medical lab, Feeling like a lab rat. He had been put through such a battery of tests that if the RDF didn't know the width of every one of his hair follicles, he would be surprised. At least none of the tests had involved psychological exams. He was pretty sure that the Neko-Ken may have been disqualification material.

Ranma walked up to the front desk and slammed his Medical exam approval papers onto it. "There. Is that it?"

The man at the desk chuckled. "No son, not by a long shot. Now we get to string you along for a day or two. Your acceptance or rejection letter will be along in 3 days."

Ranma groaned and walked out the door, where he met Hiroshi, looking like an extra from night of the living dead. "Man, tell me I don't look like that." Ranma and Hiroshi said simultaneously. They both broke out laughing and headed in opposite directions, to they're respective homes.

Ranma and Hiroshi spent the next two days waiting for the letters to say weather they were in or out of the RDF. Ranma, constantly doing Katas out in the back yard of Roy's apartment and Hiroshi, asking his father countless questions about the RDF.

On the morning of the third day, Roy had just chucked his alarm clock at Ranma, who was always far too cheerful for his tastes in the mornings. He said something about his "Pops "not throwin' me into the Koi pond every mornin' feels kinda nice."

As Ranma picked himself up off of the floor from where the rapidly flying chronometer had knocked him, he heard a knock at the door. He walked across the apartment and answered it. "Hello, Ranma Saotome? Letter for you." said the short stocky man at the door.

"Thanks." said Ranma as he grabbed the letter, closing the door and taking it inside to read it. A few seconds later, he began to dance around the apartment. "I got in!" He abruptly stopped dancing around as he got hit over the head by a pillow thrown by Roy, who still wanted to sleep in just a bit longer on his day off.

Later on that day, Ranma found out that Hiroshi had also gotten into the RDF. They immediately went to the local pizza joint and bought two extra large pepperoni, downing them in a record 15 minutes. After the rather odd, "Ranma Style" celebration the two newly enlisted cadets reported to the barracks for assignment...

HR.

Hiroshi was jerked awake, for the third time this week, by the strains of a VERY badly played trumpet.

He threw his pillow at the poor unfortunate trumpeter, as did every other guy in the barracks accept one. This one man, by the name of Ranma Saotome, thanked the now slightly bruised trumpeter for the wake up call and began doing pushups. This, as you may imagine, annoyed the rest of the troops but they didn't do anything. Oh no. They had they're revenge all planned out.

The only person other than the aforementioned martial artist who was not planning revenge, Hiroshi promptly came over and said, "Hay, Ranma?"

"Yeah, Hiro?" The martial artist asked, not interrupting his pushups.

"How the hell can you put up with being woken up buy... that... every morning?" his friend asked, with a shudder.

"Feh, It's better than pop's Koi pond or Cold water bucket wake up calls, That's for sure."

Hiroshi thought for a second. "I guess it would be at that, eh?"

As the troops marched out, for the first day of real military training, the first two had been assessment and physical testing, they wondered what to expect. What they got was... a surprise.

They were told to line up in a row and then stood there for two and a half hours before the Drill Sergeant finally showed up. "I trust your waiting woke you up Maggots!" He bellowed, as he walked up and down the line, smacking anyone who he caught slouching with a large metal poll. "Alright, My name is sergeant Swain and I will be the man forced to put up with you sorry excuses for humanity for the next week. Since you arn't going in for ground training, you don't have to deal with me for three months like the ground pounders." Here, half of the men in the line breathed sighs of relief. The sergeant stopped at a random point in the line. "You! What's your name?"

"H-Hiroshi Neomoto." Hiroshi stammered, slightly intimidated.

"Well Neomoto, The first and last words out of your mouth while addressing me are to be SIR. Do I make myself clear?" The sergeant barked, loudly.

"Sir, Yes, Sir." Hiroshi said, quickly.

"Alright, now that we have that cleared up. C'mere kid.' Hiroshi stepped forward, a bit shakily. "Can you fight kid?"

"N-not well sir. I only know some stuff that my friend taught me sir." Hiroshi said, being sure to add the title as ordered.

"Your friend eh?" Sneered the Drill Sergeant. "What friend would that be?"

"Ranma Saotome sir."

"Well, if this Saotome is good enough to teach you how to fight, where is he."

"Sir, I'm right here, Sir." Ranma said, waving his arm from half way down the line.

Swain walked into the middle of a patch of concrete, 5 feet away from the troops and yelled for Saotome to come and fight him. Ranma, with his usual big cocky grin on his face, walked into the square and took his traditional almost non-existent fighting stance. Now, normally swain did this to re-enforce to the troops that he was better than any of them and that they should listen to him. Unfortunately, he had just challenged a powerful Chi using martial artist without knowing it. "Sir, you ready sir?" Ranma asked, with a smirk.

"I'm always ready kid, bring it on."

Now, to understand what happened next, you have to understand that the last fight Ranma had had was with Ryoga and, although mostly strength based, Ryoga had had to build up his speed in order to keep up with Ranma. That's why Ranma raced in at full speed and delivered a jackhammer blow to the Sergeant's gut, to try and get him off guard for "Real attacks". The problem here was, that Ryoga regularly hit himself over the head with rocks and...the Sergeant...well... didn't. That's why Ranma quickly found a rather large man shaped dent in the wall of a nearby gunpowder magazine and the sergeant nowhere to be found.

HR

After a full day, well a full day after the Sergeant had gotten out of the hospital, of heavy training, everyone, including Ranma, was ready to crash on they're futons like humanoid looking meteors. Some of the older ground pounders in Ranma's Barracks though, had other ideas. That punk kid had shown them up ever since he arrived and they wanted some revenge. That's why one of the men went out into the base and found an alley cat. As a prank on new recruits that were getting too big for they're fatigues, a Live and preferably very annoyed, cat was thrown into they're futon in the middle of the night for scare tactics.

Hiroshi heard a scrabbling sound in the middle of the night and opened his eyes. He saw a large man, holding a box that was emitting scrabbling and yowling sounds, standing over Ranma's bed. He shot up and whispered harshly, "What are you doing?"

The man looked up and said, "None of your business Rookie, we're just gettin' a bit of revenge on the show off here."

With dawning horror, Hiroshi realized what must be in the box, as it kept making sounds that sounded a lot like "MEOW!".

"NO...Don't do that!" He shouted, startling the soldier into dropping the box, cat and all, onto Ranma's bed. Hiroshi Jumped out of his Futon and ran for the door. "C'mon. If you wanna survive, RUN!"

As all of the soldiers in the barracks got out, Hiroshi heard a telltale MEEOOWW! from inside. Several people blinked at this. "Was that a cat?" "Nah, sounded like a person imitating a cat."

Hiroshi looked around frantically, trying to find some way to salvage the situation without shooting Ranma or getting someone mauled, when he remembered something that Ranma had told him about the Neko-Ken. "Quick, get the fire hose from the next barracks over. Hurry up!"

As confused troops scattered to comply to an order given by a panicked rookie in pajamas, the sounds of chaos from inside the barracks were getting louder. Scrapes, screeches and ripping sounds abounded. Commander Lisa Hayes and captain Henry Gloval, called by a rather panicked recruit who had begun raising the alarm, Dashed up in rather rumpled uniforms.

"What the hell is going on here?" Gloval asked, exasperated.

"Sir, someone let this cat into the barracks as a prank on one of my friends, the problem is, My friend has an incredible fear of cats that drives him into a blind panicked rage. I've seen him tear down half a building while in this state sir." Hiroshi said, still panicked.

Gloval and Hayes both blinked. "Fear of cats?" "Tore down a building?" They said, at the same time.

Suddenly, three long gashes appeared in the door of the barracks. "Hurry up with that water!" Hiroshi yelled. "He's almost out."

Someone ran up with a water hose and turned it on the doorway. A howling sound that sounded vaguely different from the rest emanated from within, before all went silent.

Gloval, Hayes and Hiroshi slowly pried the wreckage of the barracks door back, to find something that wouldn't look out of place on the set of alien. The walls were gouged and scratched, the beds were almost all completely destroyed and one of the lights hung by one support. In the center of it all, a red haired girl lay, curled into a fetal position and snoring contentedly. "Well. This is..." Lisa said, with slight aw in her voice.

"What could have possibly done this?" Gloval said.

"It was Ranma. I told you. He goes a bit nuts at the sight of a cat and he's a martial artist. He's the guy who put that guy in the hospital by accident today." Hiroshi explained.

"Well, where is he?" questioned Gloval. "All I see in here is this girl."

"Um...well...you see. That girl is him." Hiroshi said, nervously. "It's a long story and I'm not too good at telling it because it didn't happen to me. Just trust me, ask her the questions and you'll get the answers. Now I gotta get to bed."

HR.

Ranma jolted upright in the bed she was laying in, in a cold sweat. She began panting and shuddering. "D-damned C-Cats..." she muttered, as she looked around to see two rather sleep deprived RDF officers staring at her. "Aw great, What the hell did I do this time? Shred the officer's quarters?"

Captain Gloval blinked. "No, Miss. As far as we can tell, all you shredded was one of the barracks. Now do you care to tell us what happened and why you have the exact same identifying characteristics as one of our soldiers?"

"Um...that's actually quite a funny story. Are we being recorded or anything?" Ranma asked.

"No. We aren't being recorded, although I will write a report on what you say and store it in records." Hayes replied.

Ranma sighed. "Well, it was inevitable that SOMEONE would find out. Might as well be the Base commander and the SDF-1 XO eh?" she said, with a bit of resigned humor. "Can I get a glass of warm water?"

Gloval walked over to a sink and pored a glass from the hot water tap. "Here you are, now start explaining."

Ranma emptied the glass onto her head. "It's called a Jusenkyo curse and is the reason Hiroshi probably told you to pore cold water on me. It snaps me out of...well pretty much any mental problems, the shock of the change I mean. As for what I did to that barracks... well the last thing I remember is Hiro screaming "NO don't" and then a C-C-C-Feline landed on my head."

Ranma spent the next twenty minutes explaining the Neko-ken and Jusenkyo curses to the captain and his XO before he was let out of the room and told to wait out in the hall.

Captain Gloval and Commander Lisa Hayes sat, in stunned silence as the rather odd new recruit walked out of the small room.

"So, Lisa, still think the RDF is going to be straight forward paper work for the rest of our lives?" Gloval asked.

"No sir, not if more people like him show up. Should we drop him from the program?"

"I don't see why we should, I mean if odd personal quirks were reason to drop someone from the program, Fokker would have been gone YEARS ago."

Lisa shrugged. Captain Gloval had made a pretty good point.

HR.

The rest of that week went similarly to the first three days, without the insanity, of course. Unless you count the time Ranma had been told to drop and give twenty and he had pulled out twenty yen and handed it to the sergeant, and soon enough Ranma, Hiroshi and all of the other people in their class were put into basic flight training.

Ranma learned at his usual insane speed, mastering the flight controls of a VF-1D in less than 2 days, and Hiroshi wasn't far behind. They, along with a few others, were to become part of one of the Main Macross Island squadrons for training in about 3 days, the day before the SDF-1 would launch. Ranma was hoping for Skull squadron while Hiroshi's hopes weren't all that high. He'd settle for Wolf or Vermillion but skull would be really great.

As Hiroshi and Ranma kicked back on their Futons, it being an hour long break period, they heard a guy at the front door to the Rebuilt barracks yell "Mail Call! Saotome and Neomoto!" Ranma and Hiroshi hopped off they're futons and ran for the door. Accepting the envelopes, they tore into them and found they're squad assignments.

"I got skull!" Ranma yelled, his hand in a victory sign. "What'd you get?" Hiroshi just stared at the paper, his eyes wide. On it were the words, "Hiroshi Neomoto, Commissioned to Skull Squadron, flight 1."

Ranma looked over Hiroshi's shoulder and read. "Alright! We're in the same flight group man. What're the odds?"

Once again, The Saotome and Neomoto Pizza eating contest began, with two extra large pepperoni pizzas. Ranma won. Was there any doubt?

HR.

Roy Fokker's skull flight flew over the christening ceremonies of the SDF-1, they're freshly painted VF-1A aircraft gleaming in the morning sun. Ranma flew, truthfully, only his fourth real flight sortie today, but he was confident and his hand never wavered on his control stick. He would not screw up on his first real flight mission, after all he WAS Ranma Saotome and Ranma Saotome Don't lose.

The squadron stayed in close flight formation, doing aerobatic maneuvers and low flybys of the SDF-1 and the bandstand where the officials sat. Suddenly, Ranma felt something. The Veritech somehow augmented his chi sense and it reached about as far as the radar. Something was moving this way Really fast. "Skull 3 to lead." He called over the radio.

"This is lead, go ahead."

"I got a bogie, movin' in at high speeds. IFF squawks civilian." Ranma had had problems trying to learn the military jargon but he knew enough to get by on a public radio frequency.

Fokker glanced down at his Radar display and saw a blip, just barely at the edge of his radar range. "How the hell does the kid do that?" he wondered to himself before saying over the tactical frequency, "Skull lead to flight, form up, arrow head formation. We're going to check out an unidentified target."

Skull flight 1 pulled out of they're aerobatics show, formed into a roughly arrow head shaped formation, with Skull 1 in the middle and 2 and 3 on each side. They took off towards the unknown plane.

Rick Hunter boggled as he saw a full flight of military aircraft screaming towards his small fanjet at high speeds. He heard a beeping sound and realized that the military planes were signaling him.

"This is Captain Roy Fokker of skull squadron to unidentified aircraft. You are in restricted airspace and we strongly suggest that you turn around." Came a familiar voice over his radio.

"Fokker? This is Rick hunter! Long time no see. I'm just taking a quick fly over to see the ceremony."

"Look hunter, You are to turn around immediately. This is restricted airspace. One of my wingmen will escort you to a civilian airstrip and ensure that you land there. I recommend that you follow his lead, as if you do not, force will be used." Roy's voice was firm, however he didn't really want to be mean to his almost brother. Still, he had been dressed down for his little stunt of letting Ranma and Hiroshi fly in Veritechs when he recruited them and knew he was on thin ice, so decided to follow regulations to the letter this time.

"Lead to Skull 3, can you escort this plane to a strip?"

"Confirmed lead, but you're gunna buy some food for me to make up for missing the fun right sir?" Ranma asked, laughing.

"Shut up and follow orders Skull 3." Fokker retorted, with his own chuckle.

"Alright civilian craft, please follow my lead." Ranma said, disappointed at missing the aerobatics show.

"My call sign is mocking bird." Rick returned, annoyed.

"Understood." Ranma's Veritech streaked off towards the small corner of the base that was reserved for civilian aircraft.

Rick studied how the pilot in front of him flew. He wasn't an ace but he was definitely an experienced pilot. He would say a few hundred hours under his belt. He decided that since he was bored, he would make idle conversation with the pilot. "This is mocking bird to skull 3. So, How long you been in the RDF?"

"About 2 weeks, why?" Ranma responded, casually.

Rick almost put the mocking bird into a spin and slammed it into the ground at that revelation. This guy was a rookie? He wasn't a great pilot but a two week Rookie shouldn't be able to fly a plane like that. He decided to shut up as to save his sanity.

HR.

Roy Fokker, Rick Hunter, Ranma Saotome and Hiroshi Neomoto sat down at a table in the "White dragon" Chinese restaurant on base. "So Rick." Roy started, "what're you doing up here."

"Well I just got this new fanjet prototype and thought it'd be neat to show 'er off at your little air show." Rick responded.

Roy started grinding his teeth. "So you tried to violate military airspace, where you could have been SHOT DOWN just to show off?"

Rick shrugged as if to say, "Pretty much" and then went back to eating.

"Hay sir? How do you know this guy?" Ranma asked, from behind a rather large bowl of noodles. Actually he had asked "ai sr? Ou d' y know is goy", but Fokker had started to get used to Ranma's strange method of speaking through food.

"I was in his father's flying circus when I was younger. We were kind of like brothers."

Ranma nodded. "Kind of reminds me of this guy I used to hang out with at school...accept he wants to kill me now."

Roy just sweat dropped. He really didn't want to know.

Suddenly the four pilots heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of Macross base's central area. "What the hell was that?" Questioned Ranma.

"Sounded like the SDF-1's Main gun. I heard it fire once." Answered Roy. "Let's go, whatever it is, they probably want the Veritech pilots on stand by. Rick, find a shelter." Roy ran out of the restaurant, quickly followed by Ranma and Hiroshi.

Skull squadron made rapid preparations for launch, both flights were to be scrambled. Reports were sketchy but apparently the main gun had taken out some sort of scout ship and a whole bunch of small attack craft were moving into the atmosphere.

Roy, Hiroshi and Ranma all pushed they're throttles forward at the same time on three different runways, instantly locking into standard formation. Flight two was up about 8 seconds later.

"Alright flight, feed target data to my computer and prepare for missile launch." Roy commanded, as he got two confirmation beeps from his wingmen.

"I got 'em sir...damn there are a lot of 'em." Ranma said.

Roy glanced at his radar and only saw a few blips. "What do you mean by that kid?"

"There're a few advanced scouts up front but the main body of the fighters is behind 'em. I got 'em on my Chi sense but the radar aint showin' 'em yet."

"Confirmed, thanks kid." Roy said, STILL wondering how the hell the kid did that.

Eventually, all of the targets showed up on radar. "All missiles locked. Fire when in range." Roy said. The Veritechs released a wall of firepower once they got into range and stripped the front line of enemy fighters away. Flight two came up behind them and did the same to the next layer. Then, the dogfights were on.

The Robotech forces seemed to be winning most of the dogfights. Only one of the Skull flight planes, that of skull 5, a pilot in wing two, was shot down. The fighters from wolf and vermillion squadrons however were not having as much luck. Half of wolf was gone, only units 7, 8 and 10 remaining. Vermillion was doing a bit better, with only two of they're units downed.

The enemy seemed to be built of less sturdy materials than a veritech, as a few shots with a GUI-11 gun pod seemed to be enough to take one out. Between Roy, Ranma, Hiroshi and the others in Skull flight, the enemy was suffering hundreds of casualties, and if this had been a traditional fight, with equal odds, the RDF would have won long ago. As it was, the RDF forces couldn't keep all of the enemy at bay and the units from Wolf squadron had been sent back to try and keep the enemy from overrunning the city.

"Lead, this is Skull 3. My gun pod just spun down to empty. I just used my last leg clip. Permission to go back to base?"

"Granted. Saotome, get back as fast as possible." Roy said, repressing the curse he wanted to let out as his squadron was now effectively down to four planes, and only two in his flight including himself.

Ranma flew his fighter back towards Macross Island to Refuel, when he saw the SDF-1 lifting off. "Saotome to Fokker, the SDF-1 has just left the ground. It looks like they're trying to join the fight. I think I can get a clear landing zone on there and get back faster."

"Confirmed, hurry up. It's getting hard to hold them off with just two of us out here."

Ranma swung his Veritech onto one of the landing zones in the SDF-1, having to switch to Guardian to do so, and waved a maintenance crewman over. "I need ammo to get back into the fight!" The crewman nodded and got a group of Munitions techs to reload Ranma's Plane.

That's when the call came over the radio. "This is captain Gloval to all Veritechs still airborne. If you are in the near vicinity of the SDF-1, either land aboard or get out of the area. We are about to commence a space fold. I repeat..."

Ranma blinked. "Space what?"

Roy scowled, "That system is still untested. This is skull lead to all aircraft, make your way with best possible speed to the SDF-1. Prepare for immediate quick and sloppy landing."

The pilots of Skull squadron turned in Mid-air and headed back to the now airborne SDF-1, at top speed. Before he landed, Roy noticed something odd. The SDF-1 was descending towards the island. Then everything went white.

END CHAPTER.


	2. Chapter 2, Chapter titles are fun!

Chapter 1 was actually part of a larger revision. From now on, its the original fic, only split into double sized chapters.

Chapter 2. Combat Zone.

The SDF-1 burst out of its space fold with a rather large mass floating below it. The bridge was silent as people checked consoles before one Radar tech noticed the aforementioned large mass and commented on it. "Captain, I have something big on Radar, Floating directly below the ship."

"What is it?", questioned Gloval. "Is it an enemy ship?"

"No sir, it looks like..." The radar operator's voice trailed off as he got more data on the object below the ship. "It looks like we took Macross City with us when we folded sir."

Gloval's pipe, which he had just been holding and never EVER intended to light, (Now shut up miss Porter.) fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. "What?"

HR.

Skull flight 1 was flying through the City of Macross, looking for occupied shelters. When they found them, they were to call in Rescue crews from the SDF-1. Ranma was searching with more intensity than most, as his wingman, Hiroshi Neomoto, hadn't managed to return to the ship in time and had put down at one of the airbases, about 3 minutes before the fold.

Roy was also looking for someone, namely his almost brother, Rick Hunter. He had TOLD him to go to the shelters before the start of the attack, but sometimes hunter had a habit of disregarding instructions.

HR.

Hiroshi sighed. He had been waiting in this shelter for about 6 hours now, and it looked like there was something seriously wrong outside.

The emergency power generators and oxygen systems had cut on almost immediately after he got into the shelter and the external cameras showed nothing but space.

He was also getting worried about the state of the people inside the shelter. Most of them were civilians and they were starting to panic.

Then he got an idea...

"Hi. I'm 2nd Lt. Neomoto of the RDF. I know all of you are getting kind of bored, so I decided to try and alleviate the boredom." Hiroshi began.

"Well son, all the power to you. This place is driving me nuts." Responded an older looking man that Hiroshi recognized as the guy who had been at the desk when he enlisted in the RDF.

"Well, I got some stories for you. Some of these seem unbelievable but c'mon. We just got attacked by ALIENS for Kami's sake. Well, first off...

HR.

Ranma stood, with Roy, ready to check the last shelter. They had found Rick, with the young Chinese waitress from the White Dragon and her family, in a shelter two hours back, and now they were looking for Hiroshi.

As the shelter door opened, Ranma was puzzled to hear laughter. "And then...and then he sits there...and he says, 'So...you don't want the bread then?'" The room exploded into more laughter, although some of it sounded a bit nervous.

Ranma walked in and saw Hiroshi, standing on one of the desks, gesticulating wildly. "Um, Hiro. Are we interruptin something?"

Hiroshi spun around and started stammering, "er...eh no Ranma, I'm just...entertaining the troops."

"Hey, this is that Ranma guy?" someone yelled from the back of the room. "Did you really participate in "Martial arts Shogi?""

Ranma blinked. "You've been telling people about Nerima, to keep them entertained?"

"Well..." Hiroshi started. "Some of the civilians were getting panicky and...and..."

Ranma clapped him on the shoulder. "Couldn't you have at least changed my name? Now all these people are going to give me odd looks. Anyways, c'mon. We have some food for everyone in the rescue craft."

Hiroshi sighed in relief, grinned nervously at the crowd of civilians who had been begging him to "Tell them more" for the past 3 hours, and walked out, followed by everyone else.

HR.

Roy, Hiroshi and Ranma once again sat in the dining room of the White Dragon. After the rescue of what turned out to be about three quarters of the population of Macross City, Captain Gloval decided to try and move the portions of the city that could be salvaged into the SDF-1. The Battle fortress had been dubbed the SDF-1, Macross, by request of city mayor Tommy Lewan.

The White Dragon had come off rather well in the attack, only a hole knocked in the back wall by a wolf squadron Veritech which had been blown there by an explosion.

"So, what're we doing for the next few days? I didn't see us up on the flight schedule." Commented Ranma.

"Ah, you're going to LOVE this." Roy said, sarcastically. "We're on City construction detail, in Tomahawk Destroids."

"But sir," Hiroshi objected, "We haven't been trained in destroids."

"It doesn't really matter. All a destroid is, is a Veritech without the Veritech part. Its basic controls are like a soldier mode. You'll do fine."

HR.

"We'll do fine, he says." Ranma groused, as Hiroshi pointed and laughed Hysterically. "It ain't all that funny y'know." Ranma had, as is inevitable with Ranma, managed to find the only Weak floor panel in a half a mile, stepped on it in his destroid, and ended up in a large lake in a lower section of the city. It also just so happened that his cockpit wasn't sealed quite tightly enough.

Roy watched from the foreman's position and attempted to keep his chuckles down to a bare minimum. It wouldn't do to see an RDF captain explode in laughter on the job but damn this kid was a laugh riot.

Ranma dragged her Destroid out of the water, thank Kami all the OTHER seals were working properly, and went back to work. Skull flight 1's assigned job was to carry the newly defrosted structures from the cargo bay to the main section of the city. It was a good thing that Ranma was on his way back to the bass to pick up another unit, or some poor unfortunate's home would be under water right then.

HR.

Roy, Hiroshi and a still female Ranma, staggered into the White Dragon. "I am never piloting one of those damned things again." Ranma muttered, as she plopped down at a table.

Forgetting that she was not in Nerima, where such things could be expected by the populace and too tired to care even if she did remember, Ranma ordered a glass of hot water and dumped it over her head the second it arrived.

"Yeah, I'll be glad when they let us get back into veritechs where we belong." Roy agreed. The three men went at eating the extra large bowls of noodles that had just arrived at they're tables, and Rick hunter, who had just seen Ranma's little transformation from the door, backed out sputtering and wondering if he was going insane.

HR.

Doctor Emil Lang, the Macross' chief scientist and engineer, stood in Captain Gloval's office with a diagram of the SDF-1 in his hand.

"Sir, we ran into problems with the Re-Construction. It turns out that one of the main components needed for the firing of the Reflex cannon was blown out during the fold operation."

Captain Gloval frowned. "Does that mean that we can't fire it anymore?"

"No sir, But the process we devised to make it capable of firing will damage the city. We would need to Re-configure the ship so that the missing component is no longer in the circuit. Unfortunately, several of the pieces that we would need to move are now parts of the city. If we did it, we would end up destroying several blocks."

Captain Gloval's frown deepened. "That is not good enough Lang. We need that cannon, ready to fire, in order to combat our enemies and we don't have it."

Lang shook his head. "Sir, that's the only way we can find to bypass the problem."

"Well, work harder. Dismissed."

As Lang walked out, Henry Gloval sighed and put a hand to his forehead. He knew that he was pushing his crew too hard but it was the only way to prepare the ship for enemy attacks.

HR.

It had been a few days since the misfold that had landed the Macross, apparently, somewhere around the orbit of Pluto and the crew were getting settled in to life in space. The rebuilding of macross city was now completed, With the leftovers from the business district being used as rooms for the infantry and pilots of the RDF and all of the civilians set up in their former houses, The city looked almost like one back on earth. If you disregarded the huge ceiling hovering about 70 feet above, that is.

The enemy forces had been quiet, sending no attacks against the SDF-1 Macross, but patrols were constantly out, looking for anything which might threaten the ship.

"This is skull lead to Macross, we got a whole lot of nothing out here." Roy Fokker said into his radio.

"Confirmed, sector 130 clear. Proceed on to sector 131."

This had been going on for hours, his group checking out a sector, it turning up clear and then repeating the process for another sector. Suddenly, Roy heard a voice over the Radio. "What the hell?"

"What is it kid?" he asked, having developed a healthy respect for the kid's early warning abilities during the first battle on earth.

"I don't know...it doesn't feel like a target but there's this really small signal...holy..."

As Ranma's voice cut off, a radio signal came in from the ship."This is the SDF-1. Massive enemy group, spacefolded into sector 215. Skull Flight 1. You are to engage the enemy and hold them until backup arrives."

Roy cranked up his throttle, turned in the direction of sector 215 and signaled his wingmen to follow.

As skull flight 1 approached the reported enemy activity, Ranma fidgeted. If his chi/Veritech Radar was right, and he hoped to Kami it wasn't, that force was more than 3 times the size of the one that had attacked earth. He saw the enemy battle pods and his hopes were dashed, as row upon row of them floated in front of...something REALLY big and rather intimidating looking. "What the hell is that?" He heard Hiroshi say over the radio in awe.

"I don't know." Roy responded bluntly, "but whatever it is, it ain't friendly."

As the three planes dove towards the enemy, Ranma couldn't help thinking "Thank you Captain obvious." Fortunately for his career, Roy didn't hear him.

HR.

Ranma was getting tired of shooting down battle pods. There had to be more than 35 kills on his record from this group, and he was rapidly running out of ammo. He had been pretty good at out flying the enemy fighters so far, only getting pegged once in a non-vital section of the wing, but they seemed to be learning his evasive patterns and adapting almost as fast as he could change them.

He fired the last few shots in his GUI-11 and decided to try something...different. He switched to Soldier mode, threw his thrusters full force forward and extended his machine's fist. It smashed into the enemy battle pod, creating a massive dent. He then grabbed the pod by one of it's wings and threw it at one of it's allies. As the two pods collided and burst into flame, Ranma thought "Yep, martial arts work in veritechs."

Roy Fokker stared in dumb shock. The kid was...beating the shit out of the enemy? As unbelievable as it sounded, Ranma was taking his veritech's Bare hands and feet to the alien fighters and doing surprisingly well. Well, Roy's own ammo was getting low. Might as well try it.

Hiroshi stared as Ranma made yet ANOTHER thing into a martial art. "Martial Arts Veritech Piloting?" He thought, with a shrug. "Well, I've seen odder."

And that's how the crew of the SDF-1 saw the first ever exhibition of martial skill, both trained and street brawler level, that had ever Been performed in a vacuum.

Somewhere, a supreme commander of the Zentraedi fleet got a REALLY big headache.

---Section Break---

Skull flight one was on yet another patrol of the space surrounding the SDF-1. Ever since she had gotten underway, about 4 days ago, they and the rest of skull had been flying heel to toe patrols with vermillion. Needless to say, the pilots were currently cursing the ground that Captain Gloval walked on.

As Ranma continued to fly his Veritech, he began to notice something odd. His control over the Veritech's energy, which had started with just his improved Chi sense, had increased. Now he could cause his engines to run at about doubled efficiency for a few minutes, although it drained his Chi reserves severely and he could divert power from one area to supplement another. With this tactic, he had managed to turn the old Missile intercept laser turret that was mounted on the fighter's nose into an actual weapon, although his speed would drop drastically when he did.

Ever since he had started seriously experimenting with Chi in Veritechs, he had noticed that he was getting some odd looks from chief engineer and scientist Emil Lang. He attributed this to the reason why everyone ELSE was giving him odd looks, Namely his decision that a Veritech was perfectly good for martial arts and his now habitual practice of performing kata in his machine. The command staff generally ignored these eccentricities exhibited by one of their Veritech pilots, simply because he was so good.

Ranma couldn't yet compare to Roy Fokker in greatness but he was rapidly catching up.

This particular patrol was boring as dirt. Not an attack, not a strange thing to go check out, not a...uh oh. He shouldn't have thought that. "Skull 3 to Skull lead. I have a spacefold signal, a big one."

"This is lead, understood. Flight, pull in to tight formation. 3, where is this fold signal." Roy Responded, quickly.

"About 50 K off the ship's starboard dorsal section sir." Ranma said, after focussing for a few moments. It wasn't easy to translate his Chi sense into actual, usable data for the flight, so some delay was needed.

"Understood."

Captain Gloval listened to the exchange over the bridge speakers. He didn't know how, but when that kid said he could feel a fold coming, he was usually right, which meant... "All hands prepare for combat. Man anti-fighter turrents."

The enemy came out of fold, already releasing fighter pods. It was a battleship, easily rivaling and beating out the SDF-1 in size. Its reflex energy cannons constantly firing on skull flight and the ship, which was taking some minor damage.

The fighter swarm wasted no time in engaging Skull flight 1 and the main ship focused their fire on the Macross' launch bays to prevent reinforcements. Fokker's three man wing was apparently all that stood between the SDF-1 and oblivion and they were, quite obviously, not going to be enough.

Roy jerked his Veritech through a complex series of maneuvers, causing one enemy pod's missiles to slam into another, and spun around, switching to battleoid mode in the process. He aimed his GUI-11 and took down the pod that had fired the missiles.

Ranma spun his machine through a back kick, taking off the entire left side of an enemy battle pod, and swung his gun pod around to kill another target. He was in the thick of the swarm and had to switch to close quarters combat techniques as he couldn't get the distance to really tear into the enemy with his guns. Routing power from his thrusters, which weren't really being used at the moment anyway, and into the laser cannon mounted to his machine's head. It poured massive quantities of energy out into space and destroyed one battle pod. He smirked. "got that down now." He thought, as he flew out of the crowd.

Hiroshi flew, in fighter mode, peppering the enemy that Ranma and Roy were fighting with supporting fire. His piloting skills were still not as good as Ranma's but he was improving. As his GUI-11 spooled on empty, he made a decision to try the hand to hand method himself and charged into the fray as his machine transformed.

HR.

On the bridge of the SDF-1, Captain Gloval had put his pipe in his mouth. Sammy Porter was too distracted by the fierce battle between three Veritechs and an entire enemy battle ship full of fighters to notice. "Can we get reinforcements out there?" asked Gloval, urgently.

"Negative sir, those cannon shots fused the bay doors shut. We can't open them until Commander Lang's engineering teams cut them open for us." responded a tech from a manned console.

"What about that Main Reflex cannon?" Gloval asked.

Lang walked in, talking. "Unfortunately, We haven't regained enough energy from the spacefold to fire the cannon yet sir."

Captain Gloval cursed and edged his hand towards the pouch of tobacco on his belt.

HR.

Roy had just gotten a status report from the Macross. It didn't look good. They couldn't launch any reinforcements and the main cannon couldn't be fired. He relayed this to the two other men in his flight, whose responses were very colorful.

Ranma cursed as he received the status report from Roy. With no reinforcements and that big ship resupplying the enemy..."That's it!" Ranma said, as he began concentrating and shifted to Battleoid mode again.

He tried to force the Veritech's Reflex energy out into its hands and make a large Chi blast, but it seemed that he couldn't. For some reason, the energy didn't want to leave the system. Then inspiration struck him, and he began stockpiling energy...

Roy gawked as Ranma's Veritech stopped dead and shifted to battleoid mode. "Is that kid insane?" he thought, cursing as he punched up his thrusters to try and cover his currently immoble wingman.

HR.

On the bridge of the SDF-1, an alarm went off. Emil Lang rushed to a station and his jaw dropped. "Sir, Reading massive Reflex energy buildup, coming from one of our Veritechs. It's building up almost as much energy as the..."

That's when Ranma released his charge through the Anti-Missile laser turret. A massive beam of coruscating yellow and blue energy thundered out of a weapon that was only SUPPOSED to fire small blasts. The results were one obliterated enemy battleship and one badly damaged Veritech. Ranma's internal cockpit alarms blared constantly and some of the panels had actually blown out under the strain of all of that power being released all at once. A coolant line had blown above the cockpit, predictably drenching him. Ranma opened a comm line to the SDF-1, uncaring that they probably wouldn't recognize her voice. "This...is skull 3...enemy mother ship eliminated...My unit is severely damaged and I request immediate pickup." She then passed out from the strain of channeling that much power.

HR.

Roy Fokker gawked at the complete destruction of the enemy battleship. Ranma had also taken out a good quarter of the remaining fighters with that shot. Fortunately, without the battleship bombarding it, Reports were coming in that the Macross was repairing the bay doors and that Lang's crews would have them open for reinforcements in a few minutes. The only bad thing about all of this was that Roy couldn't raise Skull 3 on the radio. Every time he called, no response came back.

His radio crackled to life. "This is Macross to skull lead. Skull unit 3 has stated that his drive systems are damaged and requests a pickup. Please bring him to the landing bay."

Roy let off a deep sigh of relief. "Understood Macross. I'm on my way."

HR.

As Roy Fokker dragged his allied Veritech into the hanger bay, he saw a small group waiting for him. Captain Gloval, Commander Hayes, Commander Lang and for some reason, Sammy porter. He put his guardian mode Veritech down and released his hold on Skull 3, which promptly fell over. He jumped out of his plane and was greeted.

"Hello captain Fokker. We came down to see if that Rookie Pilot of yours is alright." Captain Gloval said, with a small smile.

"I'm sure he's fine sir. Saotome is one tough kid." Roy said in reply. He wondered why Emil Lang had that strange grin on his face.

Lang's thoughts ran along the lines of "I've got to get that pilot into the Med lab..."

Roy cracked the cockpit of skull 3 and stumbled back at the billowing cloud of smoke that pored out. After coughing a few times, he stuck his head back in and a quiet curse could be heard. "Damn kid, you really did a number on yourself, Didn't you?" Unmindful of the people in the room that didn't know about the curse, He lifted Ranma's battered, burnt and unconscious body out of the wreckage of what once was a cockpit. The immense stresses of building up all of that energy had torn it almost to pieces and most of the shrapnel had found Ranma's body in one form or another.

All there gasped, as they saw the petite Redheaded girl being carried out of the Veritech by Roy. "Holy..." was all Gloval could say as he saw the wounds scattered across the body. Yes, he'd seen worse before, but that was usually on people who were arleay dead, and he could see the girl's chest rizing and falling with shallow breaths. Lisa's mouth opened and closed, unable to make a sound. Porter's eyes widened. She had come down to thank the pilot that had saved the Macross...but this...

Lang was the first one to find his voice. "Mr. Fokker, I thought you said that Skull 3's pilot was a male?"

Roy laughed nervously. "Um...yeah..." He looked down and finally realized that he was carrying a rather female body. His eyes widened as he remembered the coolant that had been dripping from a broken pipe in the back of the cockpit. "Well that's hard to explain. We need to get her some medical attention right now though." He said, both because that was true and to change the subject.

He walked out of the hanger, still carrying Ranma's still form, and headed to the Medical bay.

HR.

Roy had eventually been forced to explain about Ranma by Lang, and since Sammy was there, no one had noticed her, the story had been spread all through the ship by the time Ranma came to, about 30 hours later.

As she dressed herself, being careful not to touch any of the bandaged wounds on her body, Ranma muttered about stupid doctors. Lang had run, if possible, more tests than those guys in basic medical and hadn't even let her leave the room to go the bathroom. Well, the tests were over now and she could leave. Go to the white dragon and get something to eat, maybe. As he stomach growled, she grinned. Yeah, that was definitely the first thing she was going to do.

She tied the strings that she had had specially added to her uniform and pulled them to fit her female form. She then got up and walked out the door...into a crowd of about 40 people. She stopped and blinked rapidly. "Um...hello?" She almost asked, uncertainly.

One person near the back yelled, "Hi, We're looking for Ranma Saotome, to thank him for that save yesterday.."

She blinked again, still feeling a little woozey from the pain meds that the doctor had given her. "Thank me?" she asked in puzzlement. "Why?"

Someone in the front spoke up. "Then what Sammy said is true? You ARE Ranma Saotome?"

Ranma's rather confused thought prompted her to answer without thinking.. "Um...yeah..."

The crowd started clapping and cheering. Then Ranma realized what she'd just said. In a low tone she cursed whoever had told these people about her curse, as well as her own stupidity in admitting it.

Shrugging, she realized that they would probably have found out anyway and in a much more embarrassing way.

She walked through the crowd and in the general direction of the white dragon.

HR.

Ranma walked into the White dragon and called "Hi Minmei! Can I get the usual." Lin

Minmei glanced over and raised an eyebrow in enquiry. "Um...miss?"

Ranma slapped her head. "Sheesh, I forgot. Look, this is kinda weird but I'm Ranma."

"Uhuh…" Minmei said, slowly, giving the redhead a skeptical glance.

"I have a curse that turns me into a girl and since I got banged up in my last mission and they don't want the stitches or bandages moved I have ta stay like this." "Ranma explained, quickly.

Minmei shrugged. This girl's story was strange, but she was wearing an RDF uniform, and did look a little like Ranma. Also, her speaking habits and other small factors were a lot like the pigtailed pilot's.

Ranma, although understandably skittish about the idea of having anything to do with any females after the fiancée mess in Nerima, had still managed to become good friends with Lin Minmei in the short time that he was here. He was the only younger guy on base who hadn't tried to hit on her and she liked him for that. Although she knew that he was engaged to someone named "Akane" and that she didn't have a chance with him, he was a nice guy and a good enough friend...when he didn't stick his foot in his mouth that is.

HR.

Ranma was finishing off her fourth bowl of rice, when one of the intercoms that had been installed all over the ship clicked and an announcement was made. "Will LT. Ranma Saotome please report to Captain Gloval's Office? That's LT. Ranma Saotome." She reluctantly put down her chopsticks and waved at Minmei. "I gotta go. I'll pay you back for the rice later."

Minmei let her go, as he...she? had done this two times before and paid her back both times.

HR.

Ranma got off of the lift on the bridge and walked over to captain Gloval's Ready Room door. Knocking, she was let in.

Captain Gloval, Commander Lang, Captain Fokker and Commander Hayes were sitting there. She stepped in and the door slid closed it behind her.

"Sit down Mr., Sa...er...Ranma." Captain Gloval ordered in a calm level voice. Ranma complied, sitting in a chair just to the left of Captain Fokker.

Lang spoke up next. "Mr. Sao...er Ranma. I would like to know how you fired that beam from your Veritech."

"I used my chi and that power source in the fighter. I just built it up and routed it through the cannon." Ranma explained, wondering why lang was so interrested. It had, after all, blown her fighter to hell when she'd used it, which definitely constituted a failed technique in her books. even if it had managed to save the ship, She'd definitely try to avoide using it in future unless she absolutely had to.

Lang's face took on an exasperated expression. "And how did you control the Veritech's power source?"

Ranma shrugged. "I dunno. It's just somethin I picked up. I use my personal Chi to fight, and the stuff the fighter uses for power is a lot like Chi. I just used some of mine to push it around to different parts."

Captain Gloval interjected here. "Could you teach others to do this?"

Ranma shook her head. "There aren't any Martial Artists onboard who are good enough for me to train in Chi use. Not to mention that I never taught a class before and don't have my school's master's permission to teach and the fact that at the moment I wouldn't fight in this condition unless lives or honor depended on it."

Gloval nodded. "Well that's not the only reason I called you here. Mr. S..." He looked ready to smash something at the thought of doing that thing with the name again.

"Just call me Mr. Saotome if ya want. After all, I'm still a guy in here." Ranma said.

Captain Gloval nodded in thanks and continued. "due to your acts of heroism during the last battle, you are hereby promoted to first Lt."

"Promoted? Why?" Ranma asked. "All I did was fly."

Roy started to laugh at this. "Kid, you just saved all of our lives back there. If that ship had kept firing at the Macross, it would be so much space junk by now, and if we hadn't gotten reinforcements when we did, WE'D be so much space junk."

Ranma shrugged and said proudly, "Well I AM the best martial artist in the world, after all." Everyone started to snicker at this, confusing Ranma.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	3. Chapter 3, The Fanfic that wouldn't die

Chapter 3, On the Sidelines.

Ranma walked onto the bridge and looked around. Spotting Gloval, she walked up and saluted. "Lt. Saotome reporting as ordered sir. She said, dropping her arm to her side.

Gloval blinked. "As ordered? I never.."

"Sir, Commander Lang assigned me to light duty on the bridge until my injuries heal. I believe he said something about not letting me back into a Veritech for a month or more." A tone of resignation crept into her voice.

"Oh, well then Mr...Miss Saotome, please report to Commander Hayes for assignment to a station."

After walking over to Hayes and receaving her assignment, Ranma was assigned to a spare Radar station. She sat down and noticed that the display was rather similar to the one in her Veritech, only she didn't have the Reflex energy augmented Chi sense that she was so used to while looking into one of these.

Sammy porter kept throwing nervous glances at the Redhead manning Radar II. She didn't know if she was angry at her for telling half the ship of her curse by accident...on second thought, she was pretty sure that the Redhead was angry with her. She hadn't done or said anything to suggest it, but how could she NOT be angry at something like...that.

Vanessa Leeds looked over to see Sammy still throwing nervous looks at the Redhead that had reported in earlier. She was curious as to why a strange woman wearing an RDF Pilot's off duty dress had walked onto the bridge and sat at a Radar station but she didn't understand Sammy's nervousness. "I wonder if she offended her somehow or something?" She mused as she went back to her task of running internal comm.

Ranma just sat, working out new Martial arts Katas in her head and wondering how this could possibly get any more boring.

HR.

Ranma's shift had finally ended, and she was hungry enough to eat Ucchan's out of all of it's stock if it had been around. She decided instead to hit the crew mess on level two. The white dragon was just too far away. Placing her order at the counter, at which the counter man had blinked several times before giving it to her, she walked over to an empty table and set it down. She noticed three women walking in out of the corner of her eye but paid them no mind as she was too busy eating to care.

Vanessa and another Co-worker named Kim Young had finally cornered Sammy and dragged her off to the crew mess to get the details of exactly why she was so nervous of they're new bridge mate. They dragged her to a table, ordered three standard MRE rations and plunked down.

"Sammy," Vanessa started. "What's going on? You've been looking at that girl over there," She pointed at the woman who was currently packing away food at an insane speed, "Like she is going to kill you or something. What did you do?"

Sammy started to stutter before coming out with, "Not really much...I kinda...toldhalftheshipsomethingaboutherthatIshouldn'thave." The last part came out really fast and the other two women at the table were just barely able to catch it.

"And," Questioned Kim, "What exactly did you tell half the ship? We never heard anything bad about her."

Sammy blinked. "Well it isn't bad exactly just weird...and you didn't know because you two were on the bridge when I said it in the mess hall."

"So what DID you say?" Kim continued, not letting up. "Well...you'll eventually hear it any way I suppose. Remember that pilot that shot that big laser beam in the battle two days ago?"

Vanessa got a slightly odd look on her face as she said, "Yeah, he was cute. I saw him a couple times before that."

Kim whacked Vanessa on the back of the head. "He's engaged remember?"

"I can still dream can't I?" Vanessa responded, with an annoyed expression.

Kim continued, "What about him?"

Sammy took on an odd look "You'll never believe me if I just tell you. You'll have to ask her about it." She said, pointing at the girl who was still eating like a black hole.

"Oh, this I have to hear." Vanessa said, excitedly as she got up and walked over to the girl, quickly followed by Kim and Sammy.

Ranma looked up to see three rather attractive women standing there. "Hi, I'm Vanessa, this is Kim and this is Sammy. I was wondering if we could sit here."

Ranma shrugged. "Sure, knock yourselves out. I'm Ranma by the way." Then a thought struck her. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be Sammy porter would you?" Sammy nodded her head shakily. "So THAT'S why you've been lookin at me like that. Don't worry, I'm not real mad at ya. It would've come out anyway." Sammy's sigh of relief was so obvious that Ranma started to chuckle. "What'd ya think I was gunna do? Beat you up or something?"

Vanessa interjected here. "Um...miss," She said, playing dumb, "What are you talking about."

"You mean she hasn't told you?" Ranma asked, raizing an eyebrow. "She did a good job of spreading it round the lower decks. I'm a Veritech pilot in skull squadron, Skull 3 actually. I've got a curse that turns me into a girl," She made a sweeping gesture of her body, "when I'm hit with cold water and she found out. I dunno how she did it but she managed to tell half of the crew on level 3 at once and they all met me outside the medical area to congratulate me on my good flight performance."

Kim and Vanessa face faulted...HARD... "You...you're that guy?.NAH couldn't be" Vanessa said in disbelief.

Ranma reached into the pocket of her uniform and withdrew two pictures, one of him and Akane after his last fight with Ryoga and another of her and Akane at the beach taken a month before she had left for Macross Island. "Here, check that out. That's me in both shots standing next to the girl with the blue hair."

Kim picked herself off the ground first and looked at the pictures. "Nice swimsuit, the word "BOY" on the front looks kinda odd though."

Ranma scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, kinda figured wearing swim trunks near a big source of cold water would be a BAD idea."

"So...why are you a girl right now if you're supposed to be a guy?" Vanessa asked, questioningly.

"Ah, that Lang guy says it's too dangerous for me to change back with all the stitches and stuff in me." Ranma responded, "So I'm stuck like this for a month...wait a second...a...month...EMIL LANG PREPARE TO DIE!"

In the med bay, Lang sneezed violently.

Ranma had stayed a girl for more than a month once before and she now remembered something that happened near the end that was...unpleasant... Vanessa, Kim and Sammy looked at each other in confusion over the outburst until Sammy finally made the connection and started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Ranma said sullenly.

Sammy pointed at Ranma, "There we have it, guys really DO have it easier than girls." The other two began to laugh as well, as Ranma returned to her rice.

HR.

Things had continued on in that vein for the last week. Ranma working on the bridge and getting bored stiff, talking to her bridge mates after her shift ended, and generally just living until she could get back into a Veritech. Fortunately, she didn't have as long to wait to fly as she did to change back, as only a few of her injuries were bad enough to prevent that. She spent most of her free time wandering the city, bumping into people she vaguely recognized, and helping doc Tofu at his clinic. Even with the advanced medical facilities in Macross City, a few people still liked the doctor's old style holistic medicine and came to him on a regular basis. Ranma's aura reading ability was invaluable to the doctor in treating illnesses and he would miss her when she went back to flight duty.

Saying goodbye to doctor Tofu on the 10th day of her sick leave, Ranma ran into Rick hunter listlessly throwing rocks into a pond. "Hey," She said, seeing him so depressed and wondering what was wrong, "What's the matter. You look like a friend of mine whose depression could literally blow things up."

Rick raised his eyes and blinked to see that redheaded girl who kept changing into a guy right in front of his eyes and driving him nuts. "Um...Hi. It's nothing big. I just feel so useless. All I can do is fly and the city doesn't need anyone to do that."

Ranma laughed. "Um...sure it does. The U.N. Spacy is looking for volunteers all the time."

Rick growled. "I don't want to be a killer. You have to kill in the military...that's the only problem I have with Roy, He just joined up with no qualms and started shooting things down."

Ranma scowled. "Look, Roy once told me why he joined up. He said he saw what happened in the Global civil war and that he didn't want it to happen to any more people. He joined to PROTECT people, same reason I did...A long time ago, I learned that killing is sometimes necessary...to save the people you love." A slight quavering note crept into her voice at this.

Rick blinked at her. "How do you know." "Because I did it. Not from the comforting safety and detachment of a Veritech either. I did it with my own hands, my own power, in order to save the person I loved. And do you know what? I'd do it again in a heart beat if it meant saving her again."

Rick nodded. "I guess you're right about that...but what do you mean you did it without a Veritech, You killed an alien by yourself?"

Ranma laughed slightly bitterly. "Not an alien. He called himself a Demigod. He had the power to back it up too. He could throw fireballs about twice the size of a Veritech."

Rick blinked and started laughing. "You can't be..." He trailed off as he saw Ranma holding a glowing ball of yellow light. "You are serious..."

He got up. "I'll think about what you said. Maybe you'll see me joining later. Just to keep in touch, who are you?"

Ranma smiled slightly and said, "I'm Lt. Ranma Saotome, I'm in skull squadron once I get off sick leave. See you soon I hope."

HR.

Ranma walked onto the bridge, it was her Last day of not being able to fly and she was rather happy. 15 days on the ground after a couple weeks of solid flying kind of got to you after a while. She had heard rumors that Hunter had joined up and been slotted in as a fourth member of skull flight 1. It would be interesting to see how he flew.

Ranma plopped down in her chair at her station and noticed that today was NOT going to be boring. They were flying through the ring system of Saturn in order to get a slingshot in towards the inner planets and all the space debris and dust surrounding the planet made even HER job interesting.

HR.

He was lost AGAIN! All he could see around him was a massive black void with a steel floor. His Chi, flaring around him in a green cloud, only illuminated supply crates and metal plating. Everything was so insanely big to. He had come across an odd looking door earlier but it was about 50 feet tall. "RANMA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

HR.

As the SDF-1 traveled through the debris belt around Saturn, Ranma closely monitored her radar display. For one more day, this was as close as she was going to get to a Veritech. Suddenly a signal that looked a bit like a ghost spiked near the edge of her display. "Sir, I got a signal, Very weak at vector 312."

"Can you identify the source Miss Saotome?" Gloval asked.

"Negative sir, it's so weak that it could be a ghost but I got a bad feeling about this."

Gloval chuckled. "Alright Miss Saotome, we'll send a flight to investigate. Sammy, send the orders." Sammy porter sent the radio message to Skull flight 1. That was all that saved the ship.

HR.

Roy received the orders from the SDF-1 and opened his tactical frequency. "Skull flight 1, form up. We got a signal to check out." The flight pulled into arrow head formation and went, full thrust, towards the source of the odd, weak signal.

There was nothing weak about what was sending the signal, as skull flight found out when Roy came into Radar range. There were hundreds of fighters and a massive battleship. Only Roy's good piloting managed to get him back to the Macross in one piece. He had told the other two pilots of skull to stay back before he got in range. As he formed up with his flight, the enemy fighters moved...and the battle was on.

HR.

Roy spun his Fighter mode Veritech in an effort to shake the enemy off his tale. Just as he was about to give up, shift to Battleoid and just shoot it off, Hiroshi in skull 2 Vaporized it. "Nice kill 2, You're getting better at this."

"Thank you sir" Hiroshi said, with pride in his voice. Since Ranma had left the flight on sick leave, Hiroshi had been forced to improve. He was almost at Ranma's level now...well...without the chi enhancements of course.

Roy finished congratulating Hiroshi on his kill performance and went back to whacking fighters. The main ship was occupied with the Macross, which had managed to get all of it's gun emplacements manned this time and was making a good fight of it.

Unfortunately, this force was meant to outnumber it's enemy rather than out power it, and even with Skull, Blue, Vermilion and Wolf squadrons out in full force, they were still outnumbered about 20 to 1.

HR.

Ranma looked at her radar screen nervously and then said in a grim tone, "Wolf 4 down, Skull 2 taken light damage and half of blue is gone."

Captain Gloval growled, "Is the Reflex cannon ready to fire yet?"

"Yes sir, Ready to fire...we will have to use the modular transformation sequence though." Lang responded.

"That is a last resort, I just wanted to make sure it's ready." Gloval replied, narrowing his eyes as he watched the battle through the bridge's main view panel.

As Ranma watched, she saw another Friendly blip go off the radar. "Wolf 2 down sir."

The ship shook Violently and Kim Young spoke up. "Sir, minor hull breach in level 14. It's in a cargo hold. We just lost a few supplies."

Gloval just sat there, his hand twitching towards his pipe.

HR.

Hiroshi floated, blazing away at a closely packed group of enemies while in Battleoid mode. The problem was, he had been hit by an enemy laser blast earlier and it had disabled his plane's Veritech abilities, sticking him in Battleoid mode. He had been having a hard time out maneuvering missiles since a mecha was far less capable of that than an aircraft.

Rick hunter flew, frantically trying to avoid fire. He had only scored 1 or 2 kills so far, as he hadn't stopped moving. He was used to flying like this from his time in a civilian flying circus, which was probably the only reason why he was still alive. He heard the casualty reports from allied flights and gritted his teeth.

HR.

Sinor was a good Zentraedi soldier, He took orders and fought until he couldn't any more. He was not however intelligent. This did not quite matter at the moment, as the puny Micronian ship in his sights seemed to be unable to transform into its more maneuverable mode. Sinor's battle pod was what was called a Bombardier class, It had massive missile launchers that only fired one or two times and this was a perfect target...

HR.

Hiroshi watched in horror as one of the enemy battle pods just sat and lined up a shot. He couldn't get his gun pod around in time. The enemy unleashed about 30 missiles, and all but two of them hit...

HR.

Ranma watched, stunned, as a volley of missiles slammed into Hiroshi's plane on the main viewer. In a halting voice she said, "Skull 2...Destroyed." She began to shake slightly and all near her on the bridge could hear a slight grinding noise and see a blueish aura around her body. Ranma calmly got up and began walking towards the door.

"Where are you going Miss Saotome?" Captain Gloval asked.

Ranma spat her response. "I'm going to make them pay."

Gloval blinked, forgetting that she had just violated chain of command and pretty well snarled at him. "Make them pay?"

Ranma almost yelled, "those...bastards just killed my best friend. I'm gunna go blow up every last one of 'em." A slight note of desperation crept into her voice and her blueish aura grew larger.

Commander Lang stopped her with his hand. "Lt. Saotome, You are currently on medical leave, and under emotional stress. I can't allow you to get into a Veritech."

Ranma ALMOST smashed Lang into a wall and kept going, but just restrained herself. She bit out "Yes...sir...sorry sir." and walked back to her console. The bridge crew looked at her, in sympathy. They didn't know what it was like to lose a friend on the front line but they could hear it in her voice.

HR.

Roy exploded in rage. He had asked this kid to join the RDF! He had been the one who got him into a Veritech. He had been the one who'd gotten him killed. Unknown to Roy, he subconsciously imbued his angry aura into his Veritech, giving it a strange reddish cast and enhancing all of it's performance aspects. He charged into battle, determined to get vengeance. When Roy came to, he was sitting in the hanger, trembling.

Rick hunter looked on in astonishment, Roy's Machine looked almost like it was glowing, He was moving about 10 times as fast as a Veritech ought to, and even his anti-missile lasers looked like standard rifles. He was taking out enemies like he was a lawn mower and they were the lawn.

HR.

Ranma just sat, gritting her teeth and struggling not to just run off of the bridge, go to the hanger and take her Veritech. She watched as Roy did what she wanted to.

Captain Gloval murmured. "What in the world..." as Commander Lang studied his instruments. "Reflexometer from Captain Fokker's jet shows Full Synchronization...this is impossible."

Ranma spoke up. "No, it isn't but I hope he doesn't keep it up for too long, He doesn't have the control he needs and this could kill him." Captain Gloval blinked. "What?"

Ranma nodded. "He's poring his Chi into his machine to make it stronger. I do this too but if you do too much of it...you lose all of your chi and..." She trailed off, knowing that everyone already knew what came after that.

HR.

As Roy's Veritech finally gave out and he was taken into the hanger by Rick, Blue and Vermilion squadrons mopped up what was left of the enemies. The battle hadn't lasted long after Roy had gone into his rage. The already weakened enemy ranks were devastated by the newly empowered Veritech and eventually had to retreat.

Roy was greeted when he opened his cockpit by Ranma, Captain Gloval and Emil Lang. "Damn!" Ranma swore. "His Chi is almost gone. Roy you IDIOT! You almost got yourself killed as well as Hiro..." She trailed off as her voice quavered.

"S...sorry Kid, I'll never do it again." Roy said, with a dry chuckle.

HR.

Roy was finally released from the medical bay after 3 hours of being checked out by Lang. He saw Ranma, tossing...balls of light...into a pool next to the med section door.

"Um...hi kid." Roy said, uncertainly.

"Hi Roy" Ranma said, depressed.

"What's the matter kid?"

"Damnit Roy, I couldn't save him. I couldn't protect one of my friends. All my martial arts skill and...I..." She broke down and came closer to tears than she had since Jusendo.

Roy blinked. "Kid, you couldn't do anything. You weren't even OUT there. It isn't your fault."

"Look, Roy. I've been through hell my whole life just to become strong enough to protect the weak. I protected Akane, I protected my parents, I even managed to save people who wanted to kill me once or twice. Why couldn't I help Hiro... Just because of these damned injuries.?"

Roy shrugged. "Kid, You couldn't help him even if you were out there. I was and you know I'm still a better pilot than you. It couldn't be helped. Now stop sitting here and just give the bastards hell next time you see them as payback."

Ranma looked up, some of the depression gone. "You're right Roy, thanks. I needed that. I gotta go do something important. See you later."

Roy's slight smile at getting the kid to stop moping around quickly faded back into the slightly angry glare that he had warn since he had gotten out of his Veritech. One way or the other, the alien bastards would pay for shooting down a Pilot that HE had gotten to join the RDF.

HR.

Ranma walked onto the bridge and over to Captain Gloval's Ready room. Knocking on the door, she was admitted. "Hello, Lt. What can I do for you." Captain Gloval asked.

"Sir, I was wondering if..." Ranma's voice faded from the hearing of the bridge crew as the Ready Room door slid shut.

HR.

Ryoga wandered, still lost, and cursing Ranma at every step. He stopped as he heard his voice...her voice... coming over an intercom nearby. He walked through a door, right into the middle of a city full of people who were listening intently to Ranma's voice over an intercom.

"...Name is Lt. Ranma Saotome of the RDF. As you know, there was an enemy attack today. What you do not know, is that one of my best friends, Hiroshi Neomoto was shot down in this attack. Hiroshi was a great guy and one of the best pilots I ever flew with. Now, you're probably wondering, why am I telling you this. Well, Ya see, when Me n' Hiroshi joined up, we made a little bet. Hiroshi bet me that he could get to a higher rank before the end of his career. For valor in the line of duty, Captain Gloval promoted him posthumously to the rank of Captain in the RDF so he beat me. As a sign of respect and to honor a great pilot, I'm carrying out the terms of the bet..."

The people on the street blinked rapidly at this before a quiet melody began to play over the speakers and Ranma's voice rang out again, singing. Ryoga's mouth dropped open in surprise as he recognized the song. Ranma was singing one of the themes from Gundam wing? What the HELL was going on.

Roy Fokker heard the announcement, and began to chuckle softly as he heard Ranma start the song. "Damn kid, You got an odd sense of honor, you know that?" He muttered to himself.

Sammy Porter, Vanessa Leeds, Kim Young and the rest of the bridge crew gawked in surprise as they heard their bridge mate who insisted that she was a guy and had the credentials to prove it, sing a beautiful rendition of a song that no guy on the face of the earth would ever be caught dead singing.

As the music came to an end, the entire population of Macross city exploded in cheers, just barely hearing Ranma's final words. "Thank you for putting up with this interruption." Before she turned off the intercom.

HR.

The next day, Ranma had mostly gotten over the visible signs of her sadness over her friend's death with the promise of shooting down many enemy battle pods in her future, she had cheered up. She was finally going to be allowed back into a Veritech and in another two weeks she could go back to her natural form.

She walked into the launch bay and goggled. Her Veritech looked completely different. It had some sort of massive tank like projections poking out of the back of its canopy section and its laser cannon looked more bulky.

Emil Lang stood next to it waiting for her. "What the hell did you do to my fighter?" Ranma questioned, uneasily.

"Well, after your disaster with overloading your entire system with that beam cannon stunt, we installed serge protectors and larger energy conduits. We also put a Large Reflex energy storage unit on the back."

Ranma looked confused. "Try and repeat that in normal Japanese?"

"We made it able to handle the energy you put out." Lang said, trying again.

Ranma nodded and thanked Lang before hopping into her New Veritech, codenamed VF-1R and shutting the canopy, powering it up.

For the next week, Ranma was the most effective fighting force in the RDF. Her immense desire to get revenge on the enemy for the death of her friend fueled her chi and made her fighter capable of pulling off stunts that even SHE wouldn't have ever tried before. Fortunately for the Zentraedi, she had worked off her frustration after that week and went back to her normal performance...which wasn't much better for them as she was now only slightly less skilled than Roy.

TO BE CONTINUED.

That's all I've formatted for now. The rest is coming soon, maybe a week for the next load of chapters.


	4. Chapter 4, Ze goggles! Zey do noting!

Okay, here's chapter 4 of this. And remember, as one of my reviewers forgot last time, the only major changes in this document are to formatting, and stuff that was so blatant that I couldn't stand to let it stay.

This chapter definitely shows my fanfictual naivety. Gah... Fortunately, I believe its next chapter where I first learned to separate people's speech into different paragraphs, which will make this re-editing MUCH easier. Yes, that means that, originally, this fanfic's first 10 chapters, (This chapter was originally chapters 9-10,) were all massive blocks of text, divided only at scene changes.

Isn't that fun?

Enough with the annoying notes, read on!

Chapter 4, Career Paths.

Ranma lay in her bed and groaned. Emil Lang was going to die when she could get up again. She was pretty sure the having skipped it so many times had made this particular experience worse when it finally came, as Akane didn't end up barely able to move and with violent mood swings...well she did have the mood swings but they were standard procedure. Ranma reiterated her desire to kill Lang and buried her face under her pillow.

Roy walked into her room after she hadn't reported for duty for 10 minutes and shook her shoulder. "Hey, kid. It's time to get up."

The pilot in question raised her eyes to Roy and gave him a look that she almost NEVER used. It was almost as intense as the one she'd given Saffron. It was the "Glare of death." Roy stumbled back. "Whoa, what's wrong with you kid?"

Ranma just dropped her head back to the pillow and Roy heard one of her death threats against lang. His mind clicked as he realized how long Ranma had been in girl form and he backed out of her room, VERY quickly.

Rick hunter raised a questioning eyebrow in the hallway. "For today we're a flight of two...and DO NOT go in there." Roy said, unconsciously echoing a famous movie actor of about 30 years earlier.

HR.

After a few hours of laying in her room, grumbling about Lang, Ranma felt like she could move around again. She sat up and, realizing that she had missed her duty shift, she decided to finally unpack the large backpack which she had been ignoring ever since she had gotten to Macross City. Opening it up, she found a thermos full of what she assumed used to be hot water but wasn't anymore, several of her sets of Chinese clothes, a few odds and ends from her room and a picture of Akane. Smiling fondly, she set the photo on the stand next to her bed.

She wondered what the Nerima crew was doing, not for the first time. Mousse was probably STILL pursuing shampoo and without her claim of Marriage to Ranma, which Cologne had dissolved after the wedding incident, He just may have a chance at getting her. Ryoga was probably still blaming Ranma for all of his problems, and ever since Akane had found out about P-chan, avoiding the Tendo Dojo like the plague. Kuno...Ranma didn't want to THINK about Kuno...and Akane, she was probably still trying to cook. Ranma's fond smile faded for a moment as she thought of that.

HR.

Somewhere back on earth, in Tokyo, three people sneezed violently.

In a Random hall onboard the SDF-1, Ryoga came to the conclusion that the cold he was getting just HAD to be Ranma's fault... and for once was right.

HR.

Looking away from the picture and back into the pack, Ranma saw a few small packets of powder lying on the bottom. Picking one up, her face split into an evil grin. "This'll fix lang."

HR.

Emil Lang stopped studying a science journal as he saw Lt. Saotome entering the medlab. "Hello Lt. Is there something I can do for you?"

Lt. Saotome smirked slightly. "I was wonderin' when I can change back to normal. It's been about a month and that's how long you said."

Lang snapped his fingers. "Ah, I forgot to tell you. You can change back tomorrow if you'd like. That's when all of the internal sutures should have dissolved."

Ranma nodded, beginning to pull something from behind her back. "Oh Commander Lang? I noticed you were pretty interested in my curse when you were examining me." She whipped the hand from behind her back, revealing a small water pistol. "Well, this is only temporary but..." She fired and Lang felt a rather disquieting sensation. It was like all of his internal organs had rearranged slightly. Realizing what Ranma had done, SHE looked down at herself and blinked. "See ya later Commander. Don't worry, that's one use powder. It'll ware off when you find some hot water." Ranma then walked out, laughing.

HR.

By noon that day, the story of Ranma's little prank had circulated throughout the ship. When Captain Gloval heard it, all he did was shake his head and chuckle slightly. It had been funny and it didn't hinder Lang's job performance. The girls on the bridge, having heard of Lang's impression of an alien Autopsy when Ranma had come in after the "Really big beam thing," Were applauding. Roy was just muttering about not getting on the kid's bad side and Rick was wondering what kind of psychotic outfit he had joined.

Ranma had FINALLY been allowed to shift back to normal form the next day. His next patrol was filled with him flipping his Veritech around in loops in excitement until Roy had finally gotten fed up and yelled at him to get back into formation. Ranma didn't particularly hate his girl form anymore, but being in it for a month straight was very aggravating.

As he brought his Veritech down to the deck at the end of his patrol, Ranma's Chi sense spiked. There was a Chi manipulating Martial artist projecting a battle aura nearby. When his Veritech came to a stop, he hopped out and heard a sound that he hadn't heard in a while. "Ranma! Prepare to die!" he instinctively dodged to the left as a Bamboo umbrella slammed into the deck where his feet used to be.

"Ryoga? How the hell did YOU get here?" He asked, puzzled.

"That doesn't matter. Ranma, For all that you've done to me, PREPARE TO DIE!"

Ryoga charged at Ranma and began punching furiously. Roy and Rick looked on, bemused. "What the hell is going on here kid?" Roy finally asked.

Ranma answered while dodging Ryoga's blows. "This is Ryoga. He used to be my friend but he seems to blame me for almost everything that's happened to him. I'm sorry 'bout this fight. Could take a while."

Ryoga pointed one finger and yelled, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" Smashing it into the metal of the decking.

A massive cloud of debris expanded from the strike point, hitting Ranma and almost hitting Roy and Rick. "Hey, Ryoga. Be careful not to hit non-combatants." Ranma's angry statement seemed to anger Ryoga further. His attacks accelerated until one finally hit Ranma. "That's it, no more defense." Ranma said as he went on the attack. "Catchuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma's fists blurred into an indistinct form and Ryoga keeled doubled over for a moment.

Getting back up, Ryoga said, "You thought that would stop me? Shi Shi Hokodan!" Ranma dodged the ball of depression chi, realizing too late that it was about to hit a parked Veritech. Wincing at the sound of wrending mettle in the background, he exclaimed, "Alright Ryoga, that's enough Property Damage. Here they actually bill you for that kind of thing. Moko-Takabisha!" The chi ball slammed into Ryoga, propelling him out of sight. Ranma ran after him, but stopped when he realized that Ryoga had disappeared AGAIN.

Roy stalked up to him. "What the hell was THAT about. And you do know that Veritech is coming out of your pay." The last coming with a slight laugh.

"Sorry sir, that was Ryoga. Good fighter but He's got a lousy sense of direction. Last time I saw him, he was back in Nerima." Ranma explained.

Roy blinked and shook his head. He wasn't going to ask.

HR.

Ryoga fumed. Ranma wasn't going to get away that easily. He may have gotten away this time but next time he was dead. Truthfully, Ryoga was just bored. Being in Nerima without Ranma was just... boring. He had given up on Akane shortly after the first time he saw Ranma and her walking down the street holding hands, and it was now hazardous to his health to be seen at the dojo after the P-chan incident so he didn't even have that to occupy his mind. The panda or Mousse just weren't any fun in a spar anymore and there hadn't been a new challenger since that strange kid with that deck of cards.

Ryoga walked down a hallway, looking for Ranma or anything else to do. Finding himself in a large office, he looked at the sign over a desk nearby. "RDF Recruiting." He shrugged. It would be good to occupy him for a while, seeing what the "RDF" was.

HR.

On his way back to the Barracks, Ranma felt a small shiver go down his spine. Dismissing it as a nerve twitch, he continued on his way.

HR.

Ryoga sat in a hard backed chair, filling out forms. Apparently this "RDF" thing was some sort of military organization. So long as he could train here, Ryoga didn't much care. Filling out the last page, he came across a list of things that he could do. Not understanding most of the terms, he put down "Combat Engineer," thinking that it was some sort of martial arts style. After all, his Shi Shi Hokodan was originally supposed to be used for mining. Carrying the paper up to the main desk, he handed it to the man behind it. He was then directed to a room for a "Physical Evaluation."

3 hours later, he exited the "Physical Evaluation." with a new form in his hand which he handed to the man at the front desk.

HR.

Roy Fokker sat at a desk, filling out combat efficiency reports. He hated this part of his job as a Squadron leader. The paperwork in the RDF was almost as bad as in the old JSDF. Seeing a form in the pile that looked slightly different, he picked it up and began to read. A small smile spreading onto his face, he called Ranma into his office.

Ranma walked in about 5 minutes later, wearing an off duty uniform. "Hi Roy, What'd you want?"

Roy grinned and threw the form at Ranma. "Congratulations Kid, you've been assigned a squadron and promoted to Captain. Apparently, Gloval liked your performance over the last two weeks and rewarded you."

Ranma's mouth opened and closed, repeatedly. He began to read the orders. "CO of Vermillion? Isn't that squadron half destroyed?"

Roy's smile faded just a bit when he responded. "You've been given Vermillion because it needs to be rebuilt and they're transferring people out of other squadrons to fill it. You'll be getting some newer recruits as well."

Ranma nodded. "Thank you sir. Oh, about that Veritech me n' Ryoga accidentally blew up..."

Fokker chuckled. "You've been reprimanded for that but the captain realizes that he'll never see any money for it. Don't worry." Ranma's sigh of relief caused Roy to chuckle more.

HR.

Ranma walked down a street in Macross city, whistling happily and holding up an orders sheet. His own squadron. You usually had to be in for several years to get command of a squadron, and that was in peace time. To celebrate his current good fortune, Ranma walked into the white dragon for a meal. "Hey, Minmei."

Lin Minmei looked up to see Ranma walking through the door. "Hello Ranma. What can I get you?"

"Can I get a double of my usual order?" Ranma requested.

Minmei blinked. She had long gotten used to Ranma's... extreme eating habits but a double seemed to be pushing it. "Alright Ranma, what's the occasion?"

Ranma grinned triumphantly and held up his orders, "I got a squadron today."

Unseen by Ranma, two men at the back of the restaurant perked up their ears. Looking from their order sheets to the man, who seemed young for even a trainee. "You think that's our new CO?" Max Sterling, newly enlisted member of the RDF, asked.

"No idea." Ben Dixon responded. "He doesn't look like a CO to me but his rank badge says Captain."

Back at Ranma and Minmei, Minmei was noticing the same thing. "So you're a Captain now eh? That's great Ranma."

Ranma scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I gotta be doin somethin right I guess." Looking for a place to eat his huge meal, Ranma noticed the two men at the back who were giving him speculative looks. Shrugging, he decided to sit with them. "Hey, is this seat taken?" He asked, gesturing to a chair at they're table.

The two both shrugged, so Ranma sat down and began to eat.

Max finally spoke up. "You're a squadron commander?" He asked, bluntly.

Ranma stopped filling his face to answer. "Yeah, Captain Fokker told me earlier today. I'm commanding Vermillion."

Max exchanged glances with Ben. "Strange. We're assigned to vermillion. We just got out of flight training."

Ranma blinked. "That's a really weird coincidence isn't it? Oh well. I've seen weirder."

Max shrugged. "So how long have you been in the RDF sir?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "About two months." Max and Ben face faulted. This guy was they're CO? "Well, the original squadrons took a hard hit when we left earth and the leads had to be replaced. I'm a decent pilot, don't worry." Ranma said, trying to reassure the two men in front of him.

Suddenly, Ben's mind clicked back to something he'd heard a while ago. "Hey, you're Ranma Saotome, that weird pilot from Skull...right?"

Ranma frowned slightly. "Weird, he says..."

Ben seemed to realize what he'd said a few seconds later and shook his hands in front of his face frantically. "No! I didn't mean that how it sounded..."

Ranma smiled a little. "Don't worry, I'll just pretend you didn't say that."

Max looked puzzled. "Weird pilot from skull?" He asked.

"Y'know the guy who turns into a girl." Ben reminded.

Max raised a questioning eyebrow. "Turns into a... never mind. Something tells me I don't want to know. Anyways, it'll be nice serving with you, sir. I gotta go pack my stuff to move into the military complex." He said, getting up and walking out the door.

Ranma decided that he'd better get home and to bed. It was getting late. "See you later erm... What's your name?"

"I'm Ben, Ben Dixon. My friend is Max Sterling. He's a really good pilot and I'm not far behind."

"Well then, see you in the briefing room tomorrow Ben." Ranma said, walking out of the restaurant to head back to his quarters.

HR.

Ranma tossed and turned in his sleep, a scared look on his face. This was not his usual nightmare of the neko-ken however, but a new one.

/Dream Sequence/

Ranma stood, staring in horror as Hiroshi's Veritech was overwhelmed with Missile fire. The last section disintegrated and the explosions faded. Suddenly, the scene repeated but something was wrong. The IFF identifier on the radar said "Max Sterling." Ranma watched as another Veritech, similar to Hiroshi's but slightly different, was consumed by the barrage. The scene Reset again but this time the display read, "Ben Dixon." And again, this time it read..."Akane Tendo."

/End Dream Sequence/

Ranma woke up, breathing hard and in a cold sweat. He panted and started shivering. "What the hell was that?" He muttered, as he rolled back over and went back to bed. He tossed and turned for the next hour but finally managed to get to sleep.

HR.

The next morning, Ranma stood, fidgeting nervously with his new Captain's Rank badge. Sighing in resignation, he walked into the Vermillion Ready room.

He looked over the group of pilots in front of him, glancing at the white board at the front of the room to make sure that everyone was there. "Hello, I'm Captain Saotome, I've been assigned to head up this squadron." Seeing that no one was going to comment, Ranma continued, "Well, Dixon, Sterling and I will be flight one. Hendricks, O'Hara, and Smith, you take support. The captain has put us up on patrol duty, alternating with skull. We will rotate one flight every 4 hours and take shifts with Skull. It'll probably be a four hours on eight hours off kind of thing."

He laughed slightly as he saw the squadron full of new recruits just nod. "You've got quite a shock coming when you pull 4/8 shifts people. Just remember, I torture you on orders. It isn't my fault." He remembered Roy saying a similar thing to him when he had first joined...and he now knew how true it was.

"Ok people, let's get down to the flight deck." The 6 pilots walked out of the briefing room and headed to the main launch bay. Climbing into his VF-1R, Ranma cranked the engines. He drew curious glances from his new wingmen at the strange attachments on his aircraft, and one speculative one from Max Sterling. "Ok, let's get this patrol off the ground. Flight 1, we're up." Ranma yelled from his cockpit. Max and Ben climbed into they're stock VF-1A aircraft and taxied to the catapults.

HR.

Vermillion squadron was causing the bridge quite a bit of annoyance. Deciding that patrol was a perfect time to break in his new wingmen, Ranma had his flight flying in close formation, hugging the surface of the ship and triggering EVERY proximity alarm. Gloval's eye twitched and he wondered if giving captain Saotome a squadron was REALLY a good idea. He was asking for trouble when he gave the man who did martial arts katas in a Veritech command of a squadron.

HR.

Ranma was pleased with his new wingmen. Ben was not exactly a good flyer, but he was only a bit worse than Hiroshi had been at that point in his training. Max on the other hand... He was better than Ranma himself had been at that point in training. His reflexes seemed to be almost completely merged with the Machine. He would eventually become a force to be reckoned with, Ranma knew it.

"Alright guys, now's the time for some fun." Ranma said, sending on the squadron frequency. "You're going to try and ping me on your Missile lock radars. The first guy to do it gets a free meal at the dragon, my treat." Max and Ben grinned inside they're machines. They wanted that food.

Ranma infused his chi into his Veritech's engines, causing them to flare brightly. His machine almost became a blur as he began dodging the ping signals of Ben and Max's Missile lock systems. About 15 minutes later, he stopped and Max pinged him right on the cockpit. "Ah! Good, you can hit a stationary target I see." he said, the smirk almost audible. "Well, you did hit me so I guess you get the food." He could hear Ben groaning over the radio.

HR.

Ranma, Max and Ben walked into the White dragon, where Roy's skull flight 1 was preparing to leave. Ranma saw the Rookie who had been slated to replace him, a pretty competent looking guy from what he could tell, eating with Rick and Roy. Telling Minmei to give Max anything he wanted and charge it to his tab, Ranma walked over. "Hi, Roy, how's it goin."

Roy looked up. "Hi kid! It's pretty good. We got a pretty good flyer for skull 3, and he listens to orders.'

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Heh...I only did that once Roy. Oh I got a question. Why do you still call me kid? I'm the same rank as you."

Roy grinned slightly and then responded, in a perfectly neutral voice, "Because it annoys you."

Ranma face faulted.

Max walked up as Ranma picked himself up off of the floor. "Hiya Captain. Are these guys your old squadron?"

"Yeah, Roy here's the guy who got me to join the RDF. He's pretty nice when he ain't annoying."

Roy swatted Ranma on the back of the head. "Shut up kid." "

Well sir, not that I'm getting tired of free food but I gotta go. See ya later." Ranma grinned and waved as Max walked out, Taking Ben with him.

"So how's your squadron performing, kid?" Roy asked.

"They're pretty good. That Sterling is shaping up to be as good as me. I can't tell from just one flight but we just may beat out skull."

Roy mock glared at Ranma. "No one beats out skull. We're the best."

Ranma laughed. "Careful Roy, every time I said that, I was immediately beaten."

Roy shrugged. "That's you, Not us. Well, I'm gone. See you later." Roy got up, quickly followed by his wingmen.

Ranma finally realized that he hadn't gotten anything to eat yet. Walking over to Minmei, he saw her staring with a familiar look in her eyes at the departing Rick hunter.

"Hey, Minmei" Ranma snapped his fingers in front of her face...and didn't get a response. "Hey! What's wrong Minmei."

Minmei finally looked up. "Oh, nothing Ranma...nothing I could tell one of you pilot guys anyways."

Minmei realized that that was the wrong thing to say as Ranma immediately ran back behind the counter and came back, toweling her hair with her uniform sleeve. "Ok, how bout a pilot girl?"

Minmei couldn't help but chuckle at this and broke down. Ranma being in girl form for this would make telling her less embarrassing, and she had this unnerving habit of never giving up when she got her teeth into a problem. "It's Lt. Hunter."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "What about him?" She already knew of course but she wanted Minmei to say it.

"Well...Ikindalikehim." Her cheeks were bright red at this admission.

Ranma shrugged. "So? Tell him; ask him on a date or something. What's the problem in that?"

Minmei blinked. Ranma's blunt statement of what she should do finally jostled her into actually trying it. "Thanks Ranma, I just might do that." Ranma shrugged. "No problem. When someone's been in as many relationship disasters as I have they get good at offering ways out of them."

Out of the blue, Ranma started, "Now how bout some food?"

Minmei almost fell out of her chair. "Same old Ranma." She took her order and brought it out 5 minutes later.

HR.

Ranma walked home, happily stuffed. She had had her usual full meal and was now ready to sleep it off. The next little while was going to be hard, training her squadron. After all, hadn't Roy challenged her in the restaurant? Walking through her door, she hung her uniform top on a hook and walked into the bathroom. Turning the hot water on, she splashed it onto her face, shifting back to his normal form. "Ah, tomorrow's training is goin to be fun!" He said as he slipped his uniform pants off and slipped into bed. He just hoped that tonight was going to be a lot more peaceful than last night.

12 Hours Earlier.

Ryoga Hibiki scowled as he red yet ANOTHER technical manual. He didn't know what this had to do with Martial arts, but he'd find out and he'd beat Ranma with it if it was the last thing he did. He had quickly found that "Combat Engineering" seemed to have nothing to do with fighting, but so did "Martial Arts Figure skating" on the face of it so he'd keep trying.

Foreman Fujiyama looked on in astonishment. That was the fourth manual this kid had read so far and he seemed to understand everything he read. He just had to get this kid on one of his flight deck crews.

HR.

Ryoga studied the scorched section of plating in front of him. He didn't know what this test was for but he would do it. He picked up a spot welder and a fresh piece of metal and began to patch. Getting frustrated with the slowness of the welder, Ryoga concentrated his anger against Ranma and his depression at Akane's discovery of his curse into a point and projected it from his hand. The Chi heated up the metal just like the welder, only faster, and he put the patch on in about 30 seconds.

The foreman was now just ecstatic. This kid didn't even need tools? Yeah, he was going to join the deck crews.

Only minutes later, Ryoga was called into the office of Foreman Fujiyama. "Yes sir?" He asked, deciding to be polite.

"Look kid, you're an exceptional engineer, almost unbelievable in fact. I want you on one of my flight line repair crews."

"Repair? But all I'm here for is to learn how to defeat Ranma." Royga objected.

The foreman blinked. "Defeat Ranma? That wouldn't be Ranma Saotome would it?"

"You know him?" Ryoga asked, suspiciously.

Suddenly, Foreman Fujiyama had an idea. "Look, how bout this? Ranma's a Veritech pilot. If you join my repair team, you can watch Ranma all the time and think of ways to beat him."

Now, Ryoga was naturally gullible, as Ranma's many successful pranks against him showed, and he thought this was a GREAT idea. "Thank you sir! Sign me up."

During his patrol/Training session, Ranma Sneezed Violently, jerking his Veritech slightly.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	5. Chapter 5, SPOON!

Okay folks, here's the next installment. Here I appear to insult Ryoga's intelligence, and initiate the worst foreshadowing on the face of the earth.

Oh well, as always, I hope some of you like it, and at least four actually seem to. :D

Chapter 5, Mars Attacks.

Ranma sat in the white dragon, eating breakfast. Today was going to be busy and he wanted to get a jump on the morning rush so it was only 06:00. Polishing off the remnants of his scrambled eggs, he paid Minmei and walked out. Walking to the nearest lift, he went up to the bridge to talk to Captain Gloval.

HR.

"You want to what?" Gloval asked, surprise.

"I want to take a double Patrol for both of my flights." Ranma repeated his request.

Gloval blinked. "Are you sure those new pilots can handle it?"

Ranma grinned. "I guess I'll find out. I want to start doing training exercises with my squadron to tighten them up and the normal four hour shift isn't good enough."

Gloval shrugged. "Alright Mr. Saotome, you're authorized for the double shifts but I'm keeping skull on standby for the second shift. Come back in if your pilots can't handle it."

Ranma nodded and said "Thank you sir."

"Dismissed." Gloval said, and Ranma walked out of the room. 'That boy will be a great hero some day...or die young' Gloval mused internally.

HR.

Ranma walked into the Briefing room, somewhat more confident than he had been the day before.

"Alright! Today we got a double shift. Before you start cursing Captain Gloval, it was me who arranged it. Both flights are going up at once and we're practicing offensive maneuvers. Understood?" A wave of grumbling went through the room but quickly settled.

Max spoke up. "Sir, why are we double shifting?"

"We're a new squadron and we don't know each other's capabilities, also I noticed yesterday that Ben needs a refresher on basic flight formations and I haven't seen flight 2 fly yet at all." Ben looked down slightly and then raised his eyes again, reluctantly acknowledging Ranma's point. "Alright, this should be a peaceful Patrol. We're in open space. Everyone Suit up and let's get down to the launch deck."

HR.

Roy Fokker looked on, puzzled as he saw six Veritech fighters launching at once. He ran to an observation window nearby, where Rick Hunter was already watching. "Is something going on?" he muttered.

Rick heard him. "I heard Vermillion requested a double shift. Both of their flights are launching and staying out for eight hours."

Roy blinked. "They requested one? I wonder what the Kid's doing." Suddenly, Roy saw Vermillion lead break formation and start spiraling and looping. The other 5 Planes struggled to keep up and every once in a while he saw a Missile targeting laser trace along a part of the Macross' hull.

"They're...flying drills?" Rick said, confused.

Roy's eyes widened. "He's training them. He suggested it in Skull once but I didn't think we needed it..." Suddenly Vermillion lead stopped and the other 5 formed on its sides, making an arrow head formation. They began flying around the Macross, switching formations occasionally, and even went into a 3 on 3 dogfight. Then things got REALLY weird. Vermillion lead switched to Battleoid mode and began to punch in air. Seeing this, the others switched, as well.

"This must make REALLY interesting Radio chatter." Roy said, a slight hint of laughter in his voice. ""Now just punch straight out. Sure it's useful in battle. You've never seen Skull flight in combat, have you?" I can hear it now."

Rick just laughed.

HR.

Captain Gloval's pipe twitched in his teeth as he saw Vermillion doing...whatever they were doing. "Are they maintaining patrol route?" he asked.

Vanessa Leeds responded. "I don't know how but yes sir they are."

"Well, so long as they keep on route, I guess it's alright." Lisa spoke up.

"Sir, Smoking is prohibited on the bridge." Sammy said, out of the blue. Now Gloval's eye was twitching instead of his pipe. Sometimes he wanted to throw Ensign Porter out an airlock...

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki sighed. He had another week of boredom before he could get out of training. It wasn't really all that bad, only reading and tests. It reminded him of his short time at Furinkan high. The problem was that he was almost as bored as he had been back in Nerima. Well, there was only a week of it and after that, he would be able to observe Ranma and challenge him whenever he wanted. At least that's what Foreman Fujiyama said.

HR.

Ranma brought his Veritech down on the launch deck. His squadron had managed the full eight hours, but the fatigue in the new pilot's voices when they spoke over the Radio spoke volumes. He was probably going to cut back to four hours on and eight off after this. Even with the fact that the pilots were all dead tired, they had done surprisingly well. Ben's formation flying had improved slightly and Max seemed to react just a bit more quickly. The other flight was, unfortunately, outclassed by Flight one. They were good pilots but compared to Ranma or even Max, they didn't have a chance. Ranma resolved to train them so that they could survive.

Getting out of his Veritech, he mopped the sweat from his brow. "Ok, good flight today. Tomorrow we fly the normal four hour shifts. For the rest of today, you have the day off. I can get Captain Fokker to take our shifts with skull." The sighs of relief and tiredness from his squadron brought a smile to Ranma's face. He would have them whipped into shape soon enough. So long as he didn't use any of his father's motivational methods, he would do fine.

Vermillion squadron walked out of the bay, in a slump shouldered line and yawning. Ranma walked the other way, looking for Roy.

HR.

Hey Roy!" Ranma yelled, as he ran down a corridor on the Macross' Main level.

Roy Fokker stopped and turned. "Hey kid, what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if Skull would take my squadron's patrols for the rest of today?" Ranma said, hopefully.

Roy grinned. "I suppose we could do that...for a price."

Ranma was suddenly reminded of a certain Mercenary Tendo sister as he gulped. "What would that be?"

"Train me." Roy said, bluntly.

Ranma looked puzzled as he replied, "That's it? What do you want trained in? You're still as good a pilot as me and you didn't show much interest in Martial Arts so..."

"You said I had some ...what was it? 'Natural Chi ability'. Right?" Roy asked.

"Yeah, some. That's how you managed to get rid of all those enemy pods a few weeks ago...Wait a second. You want me to train you to use Chi?" Ranma said, getting where Roy was going. "I'm sorry... I trained for about 10 years before I got to my level of Chi manipulation and what I had to go through to learn it wasn't pleasant." Ranma had a strange look in his eyes as he said this.

"Well, can't you try?" Roy asked. "Or aren't you good enough?" he had learned what buttons to push with Ranma from Hiroshi before he died and was now using his knowledge.

"I'm the best and don't forget it!" Ranma's knee jerk reactions took over. Even though he had grown quite a bit since Nerima, some things hadn't changed.

"You'll do it then?" Roy said, a victorious look on his face.

Ranma sputtered and then sighed. "I wish Hiro hadn't told all those stories about me...Fine. I'll do it, whenever ya got time."

Roy walked off, whistling as Ranma scowled after him.

HR.

The next week passed rather uneventfully. Ranma continued putting his squadron through its paces during the days and began trying to teach Roy how to access his Chi at night. Vermillion Flight 1 was actually shaping up to be as good as Skull or better. Ranma was as good as ever and Max had improved some. Ben was still slightly behind but he was progressing. As for Roy's training, the best word that could be used to describe it was...frustrating. He kept over-analyzing and seemed to be unable to clear his mind enough to sense his Chi. Ranma was about to get drastic and do something to Roy like the old Ghoul had done to him and Ryoga to get them to access they're Chi...until he got an idea.

HR.

Roy walked into Ranma's quarters after a rather hard day. A small Enemy force had attacked the SDF-1 and all the squadrons had attacked. It had taken half an hour of constant fighting to repel them.

Flicking on the light, Roy saw Ranma sitting in the middle of the room.

"Hey kid, why'd ya call me he..." Roy started, before being interrupted.

"You're pathetic!" Ranma yelled, surprising Roy. "You poor excuse for a man. Your flying stinks and I personally think my girl form is more of a guy than you."

This aggravated Roy slightly. He'd just gotten in from a hard fight and Ranma was insulting him. "Kid, what the hell are you doing?"

Ranma heard the slight tone of anger in Roy's voice. It was working. Now for the last part. "In fact, you know what? It's your fault Hiro got shot down. You pathetic moron. You let him die. You could have saved him, couldn't you?"

Roy was REALLY pissed now. This KID was saying that one of the worst things that had happened in his career was his entire fault? He was saying that he could have stopped it. "No." Roy whispered. "Kid, stop that."

Ranma continued goading Roy. "Yeah, you coulda stopped Hiro from being shot down and Y'know what? I bet if anyone in your squadron is in the least bit of danger, you'll just sit there and watch, won't you?"

This pushed Roy over the edge. "SHUT UP KID!" he roared, his voice echoing off of the walls of the room. Then he was confused by Ranma's slight smile.

"I'm sorry I said that Roy, but go look in a mirror." Ranma said, with true apology in his voice.

Roy walked into Ranma's bathroom, trembling with Rage. He would give the kid one last request before he beat the holy hell out of him and if this was it then... His thoughts trailed off as he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. A reddish haze surrounded his body, clearly outlining it.

"Congratulations Roy, you generated a battle aura." Ranma said, coming up behind him. "It looks like your emotion is anger. That's really gunna suck for the enemy I guess 'cuz in battle people tend to get angry."

Roy blinked. The kid had only said that stuff to get him pissed off? He had done it intentionally. "Hey Kid, you're the bravest man I ever knew. As for that Girl Form Crack..." He turned the tap in the bathroom sink, put a finger under the faucet and doused Ranma. "You don't look all that much like a guy to me."

Ranma looked on in astonishment as Roy left her room. Shrugging she muttered, "I guess I deserved that..."

HR.

The next day, Ranma walked into the Launch Deck, Ready for another day's patrol duty. He was brought out of his slightly distracted haze by the rather familiar shout of "Ranma! Prepare to die!"

"Ryoga? What're you doing back here?" Ranma said, as he caught sight of Ryoga's clothing. It was a yellow engineering jump Suit. "You joined the RDF Ryoga?"

This odd question from the guy he was trying to kill caught Ryoga off guard. "Yeah, I thought it'd help me beat you!" He said, as he threw one of his bandanas.

Ranma jumped the bandana and the real fight was on. Foreman Fujiyama watched on in astonishment. That new recruit really did hate Saotome. Ranma ducked under a thrown punch from Ryoga and slammed his elbow into Ryoga's stomach.

"Ryoga, I don't have TIME for this right now. I've gotta get into the air." Ranma went into the Amaguriken and pummeled Ryoga back into a wall.

Ryoga countered with his umbrella and yelled, "Shut up Ranma, You'll fight me and I'll beat you. THEN you can go." He threw his umbrella after jabbing Ranma with it a few times. It missed and buried itself in the floor.

"Aw man, that's it." Ranma said, as he noticed his wingmen standing at the door, looking on in astonishment. He grabbed a bucket of water. "Sorry Ryoga but I've gotta end this fast." He threw it up into the air and it splashed everywhere. Ranma felt the change ripple through his body as Ryoga disappeared into his clothes. Picking him up, she said, "Man, give it up. This was annoying in Nerima and it's annoying here." Tightening the strings in her flight Suet as she saw that there was no hot water nearby, Ranma looked at the Foreman. "Sorry 'bout this. You can turn him back with hot water. I gotta go."

Max looked on in wonder as he saw...someone...walk up in Ranma's flight suit.

"Ok guys, let's go." She said in a high soprano voice.

"I TOLD you" Ben said, a grin on his face.

"Y-you're Captain Saotome?" Max asked, needing confirmation.

"Yeah, I guess you've never seen the curse, have you? I've been relatively free of Water Magnet moments for the last little while. Anyways, let's stop standing around and get going."

The other pilots in Vermillion shrugged and got into their planes. They taxied to the Catapult, then launched.

HR.

The next couple of months passed rather peacefully. Actually, Ranma thought, too peacefully. He just KNEW the enemy was planning something but all that had been happening was small scale and easily repellable raids. Even with the lack of enemies, Vermillion was steadily improving. They were now acknowledged as the second best squadron on the Macross and they were threatening to steal first from Roy and the Skull.

Roy's training was actually going well. Now that Ranma knew what Emotion Roy's Chi was based on, he could help him try to feel it. Roy hadn't gotten to the Chi blast stage but he seemed to be able to control it inside his Veritech. He could sense Chi with his Radar just like Ranma had been able to do when he started, but his progress was much slower than Ranma's.

Ranma figured that whatever the enemy was going to do would happen when the SDF-1 got to mars. He didn't know how right he was.

HR.

As Ranma put His Veritech down after a particularly hard patrol, Ryoga started his daily ritual. "Ranma! Prepare to die!" Ranma sighed and jumped over Ryoga's first strike.

"Aw man, gimme a break! I'm tired." Ranma said, his voice filled with exasperation.

This seemed to anger Ryoga as his attacks accelerated. "Shut up Ranma! I'll get you this time!" He threw a flurry of kicks, one of which caught Ranma on the side of the head, leaving an imprint.

"Look Ryoga." Ranma said as he dodged the remainder of the blows. "I can't do this. What happens if the ship is under attack and I gotta launch fast. You can't get in the way." He flipped over Ryoga's over-extended arm and slammed his feet into Ryoga's head.

Ryoga reeled back from that blow and stood, trying to catch his breath after the flurry of attacks. "Under...Attack?"

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise at that question. "What? Do you think I go out and fly 4 hour patrols for fun? We're in a war damn it." His voice rose at the end of the statement. "I'm trying to keep this place in one piece, including your sorry pig hide. Now can you stop attacking me every day?"

Ryoga had never wondered why Ranma had become a pilot. He had just assumed that it was some sort of training to humiliate him. Now with this new information, he began to reevaluate his constant attacks on Ranma. "Fine Ranma, I won't attack you here. If I see you ANYWHERE else on the ship though, you're mine!"

Ranma shrugged, it wasn't quite what he wanted but it would do. "Thanks Ryoga. I appreciate it." He said, as he left the launching deck.

HR.

Ranma was reading his orders sheet for this week. "On standby for 30 hours? That's gunna suck." He muttered to himself.

Vermillion squadron was to be on standby for the entire Mars base exploratory mission. Apparently, the bridge had detected a distress signal from an old, and thought abandoned, Colonial base. They were going to check it out and see if they could get supplies. Skull was taking the Main Recon with Commander Hayes in a new Fanjet, loosely modeled after Rick's. At least that's what Ranma had heard through the grape vine. The Macross' grape vine was rather healthy and he had heard it straight from Sammy Porter so he believed it.

He was interrupted from his contemplation of his orders by Lin Minmei, coming up to his table in the white dragon. No matter how many times he ate here, he always liked the food better than the officer's mess and would always come back. "Hey Minmei, How's it going?" Ranma questioned as he put his orders sheet down on the table.

"Pretty good Ranma, I asked Rick on a date today."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it supposed to go the other way round?" He questioned, a slight tinge of amusement in his voice.

Minmei blushed. "Yeah...usually, but he did accept. We're going to the movies together."

Ranma smiled slightly. "Congratulations. Oh, watch out for explosives!"

"Ranma, This ISN'T Nerima. People don't throw explosives on dates here." Minmei said, giggling.

Ranma laughed himself and said, "Well, I'm glad for you anyways. Hunter seems like a pretty nice guy... aside from his low tolerance for weirdness."

Minmei swatted her friend on the back of the head. "Your kind of weirdness is something very few people have a high tolerance for. You freaked me out pretty good the first time I saw you change and those Chi blast things are pretty odd, you have to admit."

Ranma scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously, before something caught his interest. "Hey Minmei, what's wrong with Commander Hayes?" He asked, pointing at the commander holding her head in one hand at a back table.

"I don't know. She walked in an hour ago, ordered a coffee and has been nursing it ever since." Minmei responded, sounding slightly confused at the change of subject.

Ranma got up from his table, paid Minmei for the meal he had eaten before he started reading his orders, and walked over to Commander Hayes's table. "Hey, can I sit here?"

Lisa Hayes looked up and shrugged. "If you want, Captain." she said, sounding almost as depressed as Ryoga on a good day.

"So...what's wrong with you?" Ranma said, with the same blunt directness that had gotten him in trouble countless times before.

Hayes glared at him. "Captain, how exactly is it your business?" She slumped as she realized that she'd just bitten off the head of an innocent officer. "Sorry Captain, I'm just a bit...well..." She trailed off.

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Just a bit...well? So you're mostly sick?" He asked, teasing a bit.

Hayes actually chuckled before responding. "Fokker was right about you, you know? You're about as tactful as a thermonuclear strike."

Ranma grinned. "So I've been told. I believe it has been referred to as the "Saotome Foot in Mouth" Syndrome. Well, Now that I've pissed you off, care to tell me what's got you so "Just a bit...well"?"

Lisa had to laugh at this, but her mood quickly deteriorated back to its former depression. "Well, there was this guy. He was the entire reason I joined the RDF in the first place. He was one of the colonists on Mars base. The base was bombed by a terrorist group a few years ago and all the colonists were killed...including Karl."

Ranma sighed. "I'm sorry for asking you. I'm sure you didn't want to bring that up...I don't know what I'd do if Akane..." He trailed off into silence.

"Akane? Is that your girlfriend?" Lisa asked, seeing a way to change the subject.

Ranma blushed a bit and looked away. "Yeah, she's the cutest tomboy you'll ever see. She can't cook though."

Lisa started laughing and this time, her mood didn't darken again. "Thanks Captain. I think I needed to tell someone about that. I'm feeling a bit better now." She smiled at Ranma and got up, ready to return to the bridge.

HR.

Ranma and the rest of Vermillion sat, rather bored in front of the situation display in the briefing Room. So far, nothing had happened. The SDF-1 had landed successfully on Mars and Skull flights 1 and two had escorted the Mockingbird Fanjet to the old mars base. All in all it was looking to be a pretty boring day for Vermillion, just looking at blips on a screen.

HR.

Roy Fokker sat inside his Veritech, about a mile away from the base. The Mockingbird had flown ahead and landed, and Skull was standing guard. Suddenly, his recently acquired Chi sense flared. "This is skull Lead to flights 1 and 2. We are about to get company. Be prepared."

The other 5 aircraft in Skull formed up near Roy and waited. Suddenly, a large force of battle pods came flying out of the upper atmosphere and towards the Skull. Roy kicked in his thrusters and jetted up to meet them, switching from Battleoid to Fighter on the way. Within seconds, the battle was on.

HR.

Lisa Hayes walked through the old abandoned base, jumping at every sound. This was like walking through a graveyard except for the lack of bodies and tomb stones. Her flashlight played over the doors to the rooms as she looked for the supply room. Suddenly she stopped cold as her flashlight illuminated a particular name plate. "Karl Ryver."

She pried the door open and saw a rather bare room. A bed, a desk and a book shelf. On the desk was a picture, resting face down. Dust covered it. Lisa lifted the picture and saw an image of her and Karl, holding hands and grinning at the camera. Karl was in his Colonial Space Core uniform and she was in a pilot's flight suit. She put the picture back down and wiped a single tear from her eye.

After a few moments of silent grieving, Lisa exited the Room and continued on her search for supplies.

HR.

Rick hunter jerked his Veritech through a set of maneuvers and managed to get behind a battle pod. Firing his Gun pod, he hit the enemy dead center and destroyed it. "Yeah, another one bites the dust!" He said, jubilantly into his radio.

Roy Switched to Guardian Mode and matter surfed along the surface of the planet, keeping out of the Radar range of some of the heavier artillery. He raked fire along a clump of battle pods and half of them exploded. Stopping for a second, he received a signal from the SDF-1.

"Skull flight, do you need back up? Vermillion and Gold are on standby."

"Don't worry Macross. We can stick it out. Try and keep them in reserve for a bit longer. I don't think this is the main force." Roy said, as he went back to splattering enemy targets.

HR.

Lisa had finally found the supply room. The neutron bomb that had killed the colonists had done a number on the supplies as well. All of the organics like Fruits and Vegetables being grown in Hydroponics were decomposed and anything in cans was useless. Fortunately, Lisa had found a large, heavily shielded emergency store of Frieze Dried foods that were unaffected by the neutron explosion.

"This is Commander Hayes to the SDF-1." Lisa said, as she tapped her comm link. "I've found a store of food and water. It's pretty easy to bring back to the ship. It's all in freezers."

"Good work commander. We will send a transport Helicopter to pick up the supplies. Stay on station until they get there." Came the reply from the ship.

Lisa settled in for the half hour wait for the Helicopter.

HR.

Roy finished off the final battle pod group and took up his station near Mars base. "Area clear for traffic, Macross." He said through his radio.

"Confirmed. Good work skull flight."

HR.

Vermillion squadron slumped back into they're chairs. Still no action.

"Man this sucks." Ben Dixon muttered to max Sterling.

"Yeah, it's more exciting watching paint dry." Sterling Responded and they had a few laughs.

Suddenly one of the guys at the back of the Room, from flight 2, spoke up. "Hey, Captain Saotome?"

"Hmm?" Ranma replied, coming out of his half asleep state.

"I was in that shelter with Lt. Neomoto when he was telling those stories. I was wondering if you've got any more so we don't go nuts with boredom."

Ranma shook his head frantically. "NO! No way, no how."

"Aw c'mon sir." The same man continued, badgering his CO.

Ranma sighed resignedly. "You ain't gunna leave me alone until I tell you one are you?"

The man shook his head, and smelling the end of boredom in the air, everyone else did likewise.

Ranma sighed again, and went into thought. A few minutes later, he said, "Well, there was this one time me and Ryoga..."

HR.

Captain Gloval smiled as he saw that the last load of supplies were onboard the SDF-1. "Is that everything Miss Young?"

"That's all Commander Hayes mentioned so I think so." Kim Young responded.

"Alright, let's get this ship into the air." Gloval ordered. ":Power up gravitic drives and keep the fusion engines on standby just incase they fail again." Gloval was referring to when the SDF-1 had first attempted takeoff back on earth. The main Gravity Pod Drive System had literally flown away, leaving the ship to fly on its fusion engines.

"Gravitic drive powered up sir." A random tech at the back of the room reported.

"Activate." Captain Gloval commanded, as he reached for his pipe.

The SDF-1 lurched off of the planet's surface, shaking slightly, The whine of the gravitic drive as a slight background noise.

"Sir, gravitic Drive fully functional." The random tech reported. "We're ready to go."

The SDF-1 rose into the air and, shuddered, crashing back to the surface.

"What the hell just happened?" Gloval yelled, angrily.

Emil Lang spoke up. "Sir, it appears that the planet's Gravity has increased somehow. The gravitic drive can't get enough power to gain escape velocity."

"Gravity has increased?" Gloval questioned, incredulously.

"Yes sir, It looks like...Sir, I have detected some sort of gravity mines planted on the ship's hull. They're drawing power from the generator at Mars base. It looks like the enemy snuck them in when we were busy dealing with the battle pods." Lang tapped at the controls on his sensor panel.

Gloval slammed his hand down on the arm of his chair. "Can we cut off the power to the mines?"

"Yes sir, all we have to do is shut down the power core." Lang reported.

"Tell Lisa to shut down the core." Gloval ordered and Sammy porter sent the order.

HR.

"Shut down the core?" Lisa Hayes muttered. "Alright..." She started walking towards the main control room of the base, having to override the doors all the way.

Entering the central control room, Lisa moved to the Power control Console and typed in the Deactivation code that she had written on a pad. The computer displayed a message. "Unauthorized access detected. Please enter correct confirmation code." Lisa tried the code again and the computer came up with the same message.

"Hayes to Macross, the computer system is giving me an error every time I try to enter the confirmation code. Just to make sure, the code is 17701A correct?"

"That's correct commander," came the confirmation from the Macross.

Lisa tried to type in the code again and got the error again. Then the computer's automatic safety kicked in and shut it down. Cursing, she realized that she'd have to go down to the core and shut it down herself.

HR.

Lisa ran into the main core room and her eyes widened as she saw that the main console was smashed to pieces. Someone REALLY didn't want her to shut the core down. Finding an auxiliary console for the control rods, she set them on a 15 minute count down for complete withdrawal. Setting her Radio for all frequencies, Lisa began to speak. "This is commander Hayes, I've set the Base's Reactor to start a cascade Reaction in 15 minutes. Minimum safe distance is 5 miles. Please get out of range."

HR.

Roy heard the transmission in his Veritech and signaled his flights to follow him as he flew out of Range of the base. He noticed that the Mockingbird wasn't following.

HR.

Lisa sat, in Karl's room, looking at the picture. She ignored the radio calls from the SDF-1. She had decided to stay on the base when it went up…to follow Karl.

HR.

Captain Gloval yelled, "Try it again porter!" a tone of desperation in his voice. The enemy had attacked a few minutes ago and skull squadron was fully occupied fighting them off. Commander Hayes wasn't responding and the base was going to go up in 12 minutes.

"Sorry sir, she's not responding." Sammy said, just as desperate as Gloval.

"Alright, we have to send someone to see what's going on. Is there a member of Skull free?"

"Negative sir, Skull is fully occupied. Gold and Vermillion are still on standby though." Vanessa Leeds responded to the Captain's question.

"Call Vermillion. Get Captain Saotome into the air and tell him to get Commander Hayes out of there." Gloval said, his voice tight.

"So I hit him over the head with this mallet, and the mark disappeared." Ranma finished his story and the Vermillion squadron Pilots began laughing. Suddenly the intercom buzzed.

"Captain Saotome, Report to the Launch Deck. That's Captain Saotome."

Ranma jumped out of his chair. "C'mon guys. We've got action." Vermillion squadron charged out of the briefing room and onto the nearest lift for the Launch deck.

HR.

"What? I'm launching alone?" Ranma said, incredulously.

Captain Gloval spoke through the radio in Ranma's Veritech. "Look Captain, Commander Hayes is at Mars base and she's not responding. We need someone to go and get her and we only have 9 minutes. You're the fastest pilot we have so you're going to get her."

"Understood Captain, I'm launching now." Ranma said, as he pushed the throttles forward on his Veritech, launching from the Catapult.

Ranma flew through the biggest war zone he'd ever seen. Tons of Battle pods were engaged in combat with skull. Gold could be seen launching out of the other launch bay and Vermillion was lined up as well. Wanting to join in the fight but knowing he had to get going, Ranma re-routed his Reflex and Chi reserves into his engines, exploding forward in a massive burst of speed.

Lisa heard a different voice from that of Sammy porter coming over her radio.

"Commander Hayes, This is Captain Saotome from vermillion. Please respond. I'm standing outside the base entrance and am coming in. Hang on, whatever's going on, hang on."

Lisa's eyes widened. Gloval had sent a pilot out to get her...he'd be caught in the explosion. She got up, cursing and grabbed her radio. "Get out of here Saotome."

"Commander? Are you alright? Can you get to the Mockingbird?" Ranma's voice was filled with relief. Even he knew what an overloading power reactor could do and he really didn't want to stay around for it.

"I'm fine Captain, I'm not going to the mockingbird...I'm staying here." Lisa's voice was quiet, with a slight quaver in it. "I thought Karl could be alive...but he isn't..."

Ranma's voice came over the radio. "What? So you're gunna die with him? What kinda pointless bullshit is that? Commander, the Macross needs you. Now c'mon!"

"No Captain, please return to the ship. Tell Captain Gloval I'm sorry."

Ranma was pissed off now. "No! I don't think I will. Commander, I'm goin in there and if you resist when I take you out, I'm gunna knock you unconscious. Is that understood? Oh, by the way, we've only got about 5 minutes left and if you do resist I'm probably not gunna make it out so I'd appreciate it if you don't."

Lisa stood stunned, this man had just threatened her and told her that if she didn't come out, she was going to cause his own death. "Damn it Saotome...You're going on report for this!" She said as she walked for the door. As she left the room, the picture of her and Karl on the desk fell to the floor and broke.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	6. Chapter 6, Im In yer fic stelin yer plot

Well, here we go. Since Chapter 14, which is the second half of this chapter, was the longest in the series, so is this one. Ya know, I'm really noticing that I had people burst into laughter far too often in this fic. Meh. Anyhow, here's chapter 6. Enjoy!

Chapter 6. Pagentry.

Ranma waited outside of Mars Base's front entrance, looking anxiously for Commander Hayes. "There she is." He muttered as he saw her running out. "Hey! Over here. The Mockingbird is too slow to get out in time. Get in."

Lisa ran over and climbed into Ranma's Cockpit. Squeezing in to the small space behind the seat, she muttered something about sardine cans before closing the canopy. "Alright Saotome, get us the hell out of here." Her voice didn't have much enthusiasm.

"Yeesh, you didn't think I'd letcha die did you?" Ranma said as he maneuvered his guardian mode Veritech into the air. "After all, martial artists gotta protect the weak. Now this is gunna get a bit uncomfortable. Hang on!"

Ranma's Veritech switched into Fighter mode and he routed all the power to the engines again. The count down to explosion meter read, 1:25 and they were racing away from the base at a pretty good clip.

HR.

"Captain, Mr. Saotome reports that he has Commander Hayes and is returning to the ship." Sammy porter reported, a tone of relief in her voice.

Gloval nodded. "Status on the battle?"

Lang spoke up. "We're pushing them back slowly. The problem is that there's a battleship in orbit and if we break the atmosphere, it will open fire."

"Suggestions?" Gloval asked, looking around the bridge.

"Can't we use the Reflex Cannon?" Young asked.

Gloval frowned slightly. If they used the Reflex cannon, they would cause some serious damage to the city but it seemed that there was no choice. "Sound evacuation alarms and move all civilians to the shelters. Mr. Lang, prepare the Reflex cannon."

HR.

Ranma flew back through the battle zone on his way to land on the Macross. Lisa complained rather vocally about the bumpy ride as Ranma dodged enemy missiles. "Well, I can't do much about it, sorry. If you wanna be shot down..."

Lisa grumbled to herself and shut up.

As Roy flew around, shooting down enemy pods, He noticed that Ranma was flying back through the battle field. "The kid got Hayes?" He muttered as he covered Ranma.

"Thanks Roy, I can't do any quick maneuvering right now. Just keep 'em off of me until I drop off the Commander." Ranma's voice came over the Radio.

"No problem kid. Skulls got your back."

Roy formed on Ranma's wing and helped clear the way.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki stood on the main landing deck, looking on at the battle out the main doors. He noticed that one of the Veritechs was moving toward the ship. "Ranma?" He muttered as he saw the words Vermillion 1 on the side of the incoming Veritech.

Ranma's Veritech landed, once again in guardian mode, and he popped the cockpit canopy. "Alright Commander, I've gotta get back out there so get out."

Lisa glared at Ranma. "Saotome, you're pushing it."

Ranma just laughed as Lisa climbed out of his cockpit. "Hey Ryoga! Get her back to the bridge, Ok?"

"Yeah, sure…Ranma. You owe me a match for this though." Ryoga said, trying to sound angry even though he could barely repress a chuckle at Ranma's standard diplomacy with women.

Ranma turned his Veritech around and jumped right back out the launch deck doors to engage the enemy.

"Is he ALWAYS like that?" Lisa asked Ryoga, remembering how caring and nice Ranma had sounded in the White Dragon.

"Oh? You mean Ranma? Nah. He's a pretty nice guy actually...of course, don't tell him I said that 'cuz I pretend to hate his guts." Ryoga said, with a chuckle.

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Why do you do that?"

"Because I really did hate his guts at one time...and he offers the best training I ever had. My martial skills have improved so much since I met that guy, it's not even funny."

Lisa just shook her head, still pissed off with Ranma but not quite as much.

HR.

Vermillion 1 flew back into the fray, its gun pod blazing. Ranma took out 5 of the remaining battle pods on his first pass.

"Welcome to the party kid." Roy's voice came over the radio.

"Aw, c'mon Roy, you really think I'd miss this?" Ranma said as he got into the thick of things. "Vermillion, report status. Flight 1 report to my location."

"Vermillion Flight one, intact. Only slight Damage." Max's voice came.

"Vermillion Flight 2 intact." O'Hara, a member of flight 2, radioed.

Vermillion Flight one formed, the other two planes on Ranma's wings and then it broke again. Now, all three pilots were covering each other.

The remainder of the enemy pods was swept aside, the combined forces of Skull, Vermillion and Gold grinding them up and spitting them out. Well, mostly it was Skull and Vermillion. Gold was just a standard standby squadron and wasn't doing much.

Ranma and Roy's chi abilities were coming in handy, as Ranma was using the full extent of his Enhanced R-type Veritech to fire reflex beams from his cannon and vaporize a few targets at once and Roy was using enhanced speed, which he had just figured out how to pull off during this battle, in order to cut behind enemies.

HR.

"All enemy aircraft eliminated. Squadrons returning to the ship." Leeds reported, as Vermillion, Skull and Gold landed on the Launch deck.

"Good. Prepare for atmospheric exit and Transformation sequence." Gloval ordered, clutching his pipe in his hand.

The Macross' Gravitic drive whirred to life and the ship climbed from the planet's surface. With no power to the mines planted on the hull, the ship had no trouble lifting off.

Suddenly, as it exited the atmosphere, the Macross began to change. Its main thrusters extended downwards, Creating two projections at the bottom of the ship. The two Semi-Submersible Carriers, one on each side of the ship, moved outwards, and the Boom of the main cannon moved up slightly. The SDF-1 now looked like a horned Humanoid form.

"Transformation sequence complete, no human casualties reported sir." Lang reported.

"Fire the cannon." Gloval ordered, pointing at the large enemy ship on the main Viewer.

The boom of the Main cannon gathered energy and it was released in a massive blast. The blast impacted with the enemy Battleship before it could fire a shot and blew it to pieces.

"Enemy destroyed sir." Kim young reported, a note of awe in her voice.

"Reflex cannon fired without incident sir. No human casualties but heavy damage to the central region of the city." Lang reported, his voice level.

Gloval sighed in mixed relief and sadness. It would take them another week to rebuild that section of the city, and they would have to put it in a different area.

HR.

Ranma cursed his luck, again. Hayes wasn't just making idle threats when she told him that she was going to put him on report for threatening a superior officer back at mars base. That's how he found himself, serving 48 hours in the ship's brig.

"Hey, kid." came a voice from the bars at the front of the brig.

"Hey Roy, how's it goin?" Ranma asked, bored out of his mind from his day of sitting and doing nothing. When he'd started doing Katas to pass time, the guard had yelled at him to settle down.

"Oh, Nothing. Just thought you'd wanna know that you've won a medal." Roy said, offhandedly flipping a case through the bars.

"You're kidding me right? I mean they threw me in here...and gave me a medal?" Ranma's voice was showing his clear disbelief. He automatically caught the medal.

"Apparently, Gloval had you threatening Commander Hayes on record so he had to throw you in here. On the other hand, you did risk your life to save her so..."

"Feh, Some justice system we got here, huh?" Ranma said, chuckling.

Roy joined him in laughing. "Well, Vermillion's still yours when you get outta here tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Minmei said something about bringing you takeout later tonight."

Ranma perked up. "Really?" He looked like a hungry dog, almost drooling.

Roy smirked. "Yep, sorry kid but I gotta go. I got a flight in about half an hour."

"See ya later Roy." Ranma waved as Roy walked out of the room. About half an hour later, Commander Hayes walked in. "Hey, Saotome!"

Ranma jolted awake from the small nap he was taking. "What do you want Akane..." He trailed off and blushed slightly. "Erm...sorry. What is it Commander?"

Lisa's expression quirked in a small smile at Ranma's slip. "Ah . I just came to apologize for getting you thrown in here. I know you only said that stuff to get me out of there."

Ranma shrugged. "Don't worry. I'm used to stuff like that by now. About that Akane thing...I'm sorry, I just miss her and you sound a bit like her."(1)

"So, I sound like your girlfriend?" Lisa asked, her small smile turning into a grin. "Should I be worried?"

Ranma blushed more and scratched the back of his head. "Uh...C'mon Commander that's a loaded question and you know it. If I say "no" you'll take it as an insult and if I say "yes" You'll think I'm some sort of perverted jerk."

"Paranoid aren't you?" Lisa asked.

"You're only paranoid if the people aren't out to get you. I ain't paranoid." Ranma responded, deadpan.

Lisa smiled a bit. "You're alright Saotome. I'm still a bit pissed at you for threatening me but thanks for getting me out of there. I was acting kind of stupid back there."

Ranma shrugged. "Everyone acts stupid. I should know best about that kind of stuff."

"Well, I've got to get back up to the bridge. Nice talking to you Saotome." Lisa walked out the door and it slid shut behind her.

HR.

Ranma had finally gotten out of the brig. He had gotten his "White Dragon Takeout." but it had been sent with a guard. Minmei was apparently on another date with Lt. Hunter. Those two were getting pretty close now and Minmei seemed REALLY cheerful all the time. Rick just kept walking around with this dopey smile on his face. Ranma felt like laughing out loud every time he saw it.

As Ranma walked into the White dragon, he saw Minmei working at the counter, Humming happily. "Hey Minmei!" He yelled, as he walked over.

"Hi Ranma, What can I get you?" Minmei responded, cheerfully.

"I'll take my usual." Ranma responded, pulling a couple hundred yen bills out of his pocket and paying Minmei in advance. Grabbing the food when it was ready, he went to a corner table and sat down to eat. Noticing some movement out of the corner of his eye, he glanced around to see a small black Television mounted on the wall. He blinked. 'I wonder what that's about.'

"Welcome back to "Good Morning, Macross!" We just came on the air yesterday and this is our first broadcast of this show. Big news, the sections of the city that the modular transformation destroyed have almost all been rebuilt. Also, the mayor has announced that Macross city is going to have a "Miss Macross" Competition as part of the new Macross Television Network's schedule. It has been scheduled for the end of next week."

For some reason, a cold chill ran down Ranma's back. He dismissed it as a nervous twitch. He had been getting a lot of them since he got to the SDF-1.

HR.

Max Sterling was also watching the "Good Morning, Macross!" show. At the sound of the Miss Macross competition, an idea for a prank entered his head. Now, normally Max wasn't much for pranks but this one was too good. An evil smirk came across Max's face.

HR.

The next day, Ranma was confused by the small snickers and knowing looks being exchanged when he entered the Vermillion Briefing Room. Shrugging them off, he started speaking. "Alright, due to a request Mr. Sterling made to me a week ago, we will be taking the next week's patrols off. He has requested that his Veritech be modified for better performance, and due to his kill scores, I have authorized it. The whole squadron is being pulled off for these enhancements as Captain Gloval liked the idea. We are all to be upgraded to VF-1J aircraft accept for mine which will stay a VF-1R. Any questions?"

The whole squadron whooped and began clapping. A week off, excellent.

Ranma shrugged. "Well then, no questions I guess. Dismissed. Oh, Mr Sterling, would you stay behind?"

Max stayed as the rest of the squadron left. "Yes sir?" He asked, hiding his slight unease.

"Could you tell me what's going on here?" Ranma said, a slight tone of suspicion in his voice.

"What's going on here? What do you mean sir?" max responded, beginning to get nervous.

"I don't know. Everyone seems to be looking at me weirdly and I've been hearing muffled laughter from you guys all morning."

"Nothing's going on sir. I don't know why, I think Ben was telling a few jokes before the briefing, maybe that's it." Max said, lying through his teeth.

Ranma shrugged. "I guess. I hope that's it."

As Ranma walked out of the room, Max let out a sigh of relief.

HR.

Ranma walked along a street in Macross city, trying to find something to do. He'd already gone for a couple hours on the simulators and he didn't feel like practicing Katas at the moment. He stopped as he caught sight of Minmei, Running down the street and waving a paper.

"Hey Ranma! Take a look at this." Minmei said, tossing Ranma the paper.

Ranma read the top line. "Miss Macross Contestants." and then looked down to the first line to see Minmei's picture next to the words, "Lin Minmei, sponsored by the White Dragon Restaurant."

"Congratulations Minmei. I hope you do well." Ranma said, a bright smile on his face.

"Thanks Ranma. I got this GREAT idea for a song and..." She trailed off as she saw Ranma's eye twitch.

Ranma had caught sight of a blur of Red further down the page. His eyes were drawn to it and he saw... A picture of his girl form with "Ranma Saotome, sponsored by Vermillion Squadron" written next to it.

"WHAT!" Ranma yelled, causing the people near him to turn and regard him strangely.

Minmei blinked. "What's wrong Ranma?"

"PLEASE tell me I'm hallucinating this, Minmei." Ranma handed the form to Minmei with his finger next to his girl form's face.

Minmei blinked...and began laughing. "Ranma...Sorry but you weren't hallucinating."

Ranma groaned and slapped his hand to his head. "Someone's gunna die for this. I swear it."

HR.

At a nearby Cafe, Max Sterling sneezed violently, spilling his cup of coffee all over his clean flight suit.

HR.

Ranma stomped into the "Macross Television Network" main office and up to the secretary.

"Hello, Can I speak to the manager please?" He said, in a tightly controlled voice.

The secretary consulted a computer next to her. "Yes, He's not in a meeting or anything, Let me just buzz you in Mr..."

"Saotome." Ranma responded, taking his cue.

The secretary pushed a button on her desk and said, "A Mr. Saotome here to see you sir." A reply seemed to come through the secretary's headset. "Go on in Mr. Saotome."

Ranma walked into the office, still keeping under tight control.

In the office, a short balding man in a business suit sat at a desk. "Hello son, what can I do for you?"

Ranma slammed down the "Miss Macross" paper. "Could you please get me off this list?"

The short man blinked. "You're on the "Miss Macross" list? How did that happen?"

Ranma said, "I think it was a prank by my squadron. You see I'm that pilot with the weird curse and..."

The man's face cleared in understanding. "Ah, you're Captain Saotome. Well, I'm sorry but we can't get you off the list now."

"What!" Ranma yelled.

"Look, I'm sorry but we closed down admissions earlier today. If we took you off the list, we'd have to postpone the event for another week while we find a replacement. Anyway, if this picture of your other form is accurate, you have a good chance of winning."

Ranma's eye twitched and then he remembered how happy Minmei was that she'd gotten into the contest...and all those other girls, too. He sighed. "How do I get myself into this kind of crap?" he muttered.

HR.

Ranma Saotome walked down the street, his battle aura faintly blazing around his body. "I'm gunna kill..." He was cut off by slamming into Commander Lisa Hayes. "Oh...Sorry Commander."

Lisa and Ranma picked themselves up off the ground, Lisa straightening her uniform. "Watch where you're going, Saotome." Noticing the small glowing aura around Ranma, she stepped back and said, "Erm...Saotome, You're glowing."

Ranma blinked and realized that he was still letting off his aura. "Er...Sorry Commander." He said as he cut it off. "I'm just a bit pissed off at the moment."

Lisa blinked at the fading of the glow and said. "What's pissed you off?"

Ranma tossed the piece of paper, which he had been clutching in his left hand, to Lisa. Smoothing it out, she read...And started laughing. "You...You're in the..."

"Oh, yeah! Laugh it up Commander." Ranma said, sarcastically. "Someone in my squadron, if not the whole bunch, thought it'd be funny. The problem is that I CAN'T get out of it."

Lisa shook her head. "Saotome, Does this stuff happen to you a lot?"

Ranma laughed slightly. "You could say that. Hey, to pay you back for knocking you over, Can I buy you a bite at the Dragon?" He asked, unintentionally sounding like he was asking Lisa out.

"Um...Sure. " She responded, surprised.

HR.

Minmei was manning the counters again. Apparently, her skipping down the street was on her way back to the Restaurant. "Hey Ranma. Did you get that thing straightened up?" She asked, as she saw the pigtailed martial artist entering with Commander Hayes.

"No. I seem to be stuck. If I drop out they say they'll have to postpone it for a week...and I really don't want half the women on the ship angry at me." Ranma shuddered at this.

"So you're going to do it?" Minmei asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I've had to do worse before. Anyways, I'm not aiming to win. Actually, I'm looking to be kicked out the first round." Ranma responded. Normally, he was up for any challenge put before him, but this was more a prank gone wrong than anything else.

"So, what? You going to walk on in full dress uniform?" Minmei asked, grinning at the mental image.

"Actually. that ain't a bad idea! Thanks Minmei." Ranma responded, Surprising Minmei. "Anyways, Could I get my usual and a second for Commander Hayes? I accidentally flattened her on the street and promised to buy dinner as an apology."

Minmei nodded. "Sure thing Ranma." She said, as she began to prepare the food. Ranma was one of the White Dragon's best customers.

Lisa sat down at a table and Ranma brought the food over when it was ready. "Sorry for knocking you down back there. I was just kinda mad." He said as he sat down and set the two plates on the table.

"It's alright Saotome. I'd be pissed off too. Of course, I don't really know what it's like, thankfully."

Ranma laughed slightly. "It actually ain't that bad, and the free iced cream is a pretty nice bonus."

Lisa's eyes widened. "You don't?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Um...he he he... Well, if you've got the opportunity to eat...right?"

Lisa laughed. "Saotome, you're something else alright."

They traded conversation for the next half hour as they dug into they're meal. Ranma got up first. "I gotta go hunt down my squadron and find out which of them signed me up for that contest... I see a temporary assignment to maintenance in their future. after all, we're off for a week and it won't hamper combat performance."

Lisa laughed. "Saotome, you're being a bit cruel aren't you? I mean temp maintenance workers are always assigned to..."

Ranma grinned evilly. "That's the point." Chuckling, He walked off, Missing Lisa's slight sigh and odd look after him.

HR.

"He WHAT!" Max Sterling yelled as he paced his Room.

Ben Dixon, sitting on a chair, responded. "He said he was staying in. Apparently, he couldn't drop out or the thing would be delayed for a week. Why are you so upset? It'll just make it more funny."

"He'll KILL me Ben. I mean all I wanted to do was have him on the list. I assumed he would be able to get out of it and would just think of it as a good joke when he got back. Now he has to go through with it." he began chanting "I'm so dead." under his breath.

Suddenly, a knock came on Max's door.

Max stopped cold in his pacing and started to shake. Getting tired of this display, Ben yanked open the door. "Oh! Captain Saotome."

"Hi Ben. Is max in there? I've gotta talk to him."

"Erm... Yeah, he's in here." Ben said, deciding to sacrifice his friend and not risk lying to a superior officer.

Ranma walked into the room and saw Max shaking. "Ah, so they were telling the truth then? You were the one who put my name on the list?"

Max dumbly nodded.

Ranma chuckled slightly. "You can relax, I'm not gunna kill you..." He waited just long enough for Max to relax and then continued, "Just wound you severely." He loved using that trick. Nabiki had shown it to him just before he had left Nerima.

Max jumped about 2 feet.

Ranma laughed harder. "Sorry Sterling. I ain't gunna touch you. One thing though. If you EVER do something like this again..." He left the sentence unfinished.

"So...you're not angry?" Max asked, hopefully.

"Not really. People set me up for much more humiliating things in the past. Oh, you're assigned to maintenance for the rest of the week. See you later." Ranma walked out of the room, still snickering.

Max slumped. "Dammit. He's confusing..."

Ben just laughed.

HR.

Ranma sat in his room, sorting through his pile of Chinese clothes. "Where the hell is that thing..." He muttered, as he sorted them. Finally finding what he wanted, a longer than normal Chinese shirt, he put it aside. "Now all I need is..." He continued, talking to himself. He resumed rummaging through the pile of cloths. If he was going to have to participate in this "Miss Macross" thing, the least he could do was actually try.

About 5 minutes later, he threw the pile onto the floor in frustration. "I know I brought it." Then he remembered the side pockets of his pack. He hadn't bothered to empty them, as they usually didn't contain much. Getting up, he hauled the pack out of the closet and opened the pockets. He found what he was looking for in the top left section and set it next to the shirt. With some interest, he noticed that the top right pocket was also full. "I don't remember putting anything in there."

Taking out a small brown rapped package, he tore it open. A small piece of paper and a black cassette tape fell out. Picking up the paper, this is what he read.

"Hello Ranma-Kun. I packed this tape to cheer you up while you're not in Nerima. Remember that song Akane sung last month? This tape has her singing it on one side and the other is the instrumental. Play it when you get homesick. I've also written the lyrics on the other side of this card incase you want to try it in your girl form. Everyone's going to miss you. From Kasumi."

Ranma flipped over the card to see the Lyrics for the song. Remembering back to when Akane had sung it as part of the school talent show, he smiled. Then his smile got bigger as he realized what he was going to do for the talent section of the contest. "It's not as sappy as that thing I had to sing last Christmas." Ranma muttered as he pocketed the tape.

HR.

The next week passed quickly as the crew of the Macross eagerly awaited the Miss Macross Pageant and the relief from the boredom of everyday life that it provided. The information that Ranma was participating in the contest hadn't seemed to spread very far, or really bother the people it spread to, and Ranma was glad of that. He didn't want to have to deal with the ribbing he was going to get after the contest, let alone the ribbing he was expecting before it.

The mayor of Macross had commissioned a large hall to be built to seat about half of the population of Macross City. All of the rest would have to watch from home.

Roy Fokker's skull flight was slated for patrol duty during the pageant and Roy was complaining about this to anyone who would listen. Finally, getting tired of his griping, Captain Gloval had ordered Sammy Porter to route the Television signal through the main transmitter and out to the flight.

HR.

Ranma sat, tapping her foot against a wall, waiting for the hall to open. She was dressed in her normal pilot's off duty uniform and had a large black sports bag over her shoulder. "Man, this is boring ain't it?" She muttered to no one in particular.

Minmei, nearby, spoke up, "Aw, c'mon Ranma. This is exciting. We'll be on stage in front of the whole city in a little while...actually, I'm kinda scared."

Sammy Porter agreed. "How can you be so calm, Saotome? I mean you're the one who should be most nervous about this."

"Feh, You haven't heard much about my life have you. I engaged in an eating contest in front of 40 rich people and if I lost, I'd have to marry a guy. This is cake." Ranma said, tossing the strap of the sports bag up in the air.

"...You're kidding me right? An eating contest?" porter asked, incredulously.

Ranma didn't get a chance to respond, as a short balding man, who Ranma recognized as the manager of the Macross Television Network, walked out of the front doors of the hall. "Would all contestants please proceed to the back stage dressing area, please?"

Ranma walked in with the rest of the women to the backstage area. Grabbing a black piece of cloth out of her bag, she tied it around her head, covering her eyes.

"Ranma...why are you doing that?" Minmei asked, confused.

"Keeps me from being pummeled." Ranma responded, shortly.

The few women in the room who knew Ranma started laughing as they undressed and put on the clothes they would be wearing during the pageant, while the ones that didn't just looked confused.

"Ranma, you can take that off now." Minmei said a few minutes later, trying to repress laughter.

Ranma gratefully took the cloth off of her eyes and opened the sports bag again, taking her dress uniform out of it. she rapidly changed and pinned her single service medal to her left breast pocket. Putting her cap on and straightening it, she looked in a mirror and nodded. "Looking good." she said, smirking.

Minmei and all of the others in the room blinked as they saw Ranma, dressed in a military uniform. All the rest of them, including Sammy, were wearing some sort of fancy dress. "Um Ranma?" Minmei asked, tentatively. "Why are you dressed in your dress uniform?"

"Well, they said fancy dress for the first presentation and this is the best suit I got." Ranma said, shrugging.

Minmei just decided not to comment.

HR.

The Hall was completely full by the time everyone was ready. The noise of the crowd was deafening. The manager of the Macross Television Network walked out onto the stage. "Hello, I'm Jerry Furbish and I'd like to welcome you to the first Miss Macross pageant. Today, we have many lovely young ladies, eager to show what they can do. First up, please give a big round of applause for Jan Arden. She's a famous movie actor from the United States who now hosts our "Good Morning, Macross!" news show."

A woman with long black hair, wearing a backless red dress, walked out of the back stage area and turned around slowly before walking back in.

Furbish continued to introduce the contestants. Ranma didn't recognize anyone accept for Minmei and Sammy. Well, she had seen most of the others in passing but didn't know them. Finally, Ranma's own turn came.

"Now, here's one of our stranger entries, Captain Ranma Saotome of Vermillion Squadron. Her squadron apparently pulled a prank on her and signed her up. Well, no matter why she's here, give her a round of applause." Furbish said, cuing Ranma to walk out onto the stage.

Half of the crowd, aware of Ranma's curse, laughed at the sight of her in full dress uniform walking down the stage. The other half, who either missed the rumor or didn't much care about rumors, just looked confused and wondered if they'd missed the joke. Ranma just smiled and waved, finding the reactions of the audience almost as funny as they did her.

Backstage, Minmei nudged Sammy. "What a ham."

Sammy just laughed.

Once all of the women had been introduced, Furbish asked the audience to cast votes to eliminate people. To Ranma's surprise, she wasn't eliminated in the first round. She had thought that wearing her dress uniform instead of a dress or skirt would get her knocked out fast but apparently she was wrong.

"Next up is the evening wear competition. Each of the remaining women will walk out in a dress and you will vote on who looks best. The people with the fewest votes will be eliminated." Furbish explained the rules.

Ranma pulled the long Chinese shirt out of the black gym bag and exchanged her dress uniform for it and a pair of boxers. The shorts were hidden under the hem of the shirt. Unfortunately for Ranma, what she thought was a "Long Chinese shirt" actually was a rather attractive Chinese mini dress. Akane had bought it for him as a prank. To Akane's annoyance, Ranma had just said, "Thanks. So you can be cute." and put the dress on, assuming it was just a long shirt and tucking it into his waist band. Without the waist band of a pair of kung fu pants to restrain it, the dress had fallen correctly along all of Ranma's female curves and made her look...well. Sexy.

As she waited her turn to go out onto the stage again, Ranma noticed Minmei and Sammy giving her odd looks, along with several of the other women that she didn't know. "Hey, Sammy, what's wrong?" Ranma asked, deciding to be blunt.

"Um, Ranma? Where did you get that dress?" Sammy asked, with a mixture of envy and confusion.

"Um...It's one of my Chinese shirts. It's kinda long so I decided to wear it. Figured it'd get me outta here by round two."

Sammy started snickering. "Sorry Ranma, if that's your strategy for getting voted out, it definitely won't work."

Ranma just blinked in confusion but was interrupted before she could ask Sammy what she meant by the call of "Ranma Saotome." coming from the stage.

"Sorry Sammy. Gotta go." Ranma said, as she walked for the stage entrance.

HR.

Max Sterling and the rest of Vermillion squadron sat in the front row of the Hall, waiting for Ranma to come out. "Well, from what I saw in the first round, she definitely isn't taking this seriously." He laughed as he remembered Ranma walking out in a dress uniform instead of a dress.

Ben shrugged. "She's actually a guy remember? She's only doing this because she has to."

Max shrugged and agreed. The three men in wing two just remained silent.

Suddenly, Ranma's name was called and she walked out. Max's jaw dropped and his eyes widened. "Damn..." he whistled.

Ben's expression was glazed. The only other person that had looked that good so far was Minmei. "I guess she is taking it seriously..."

Wing two's pilots started whistling and hooting. Max and Ben dove for cover before Ranma could trace the sound back to them and made rapid shushing motions. "Shut up, you guys want extra flight duty for a week or something?" Max hissed, quietly. He still had some rather unpleasant memories of his just completed week in maintanence, and he was pretty sure that he'd never be clean again. The members of flight two immediately quieted down.

HR.

Roy Fokker cursed his bad luck at getting patrol duty today. From the sounds he was hearing from his radio, that was a really interesting pageant. The last few minutes had confused him though. Sure, he had expected the burst of cheering at Minmei. She was very cute, but why the hell was there almost as much cheering at Ranma's entrance. What the heck was going on? "Hey Rick. What do you think is goin on over there?" Roy asked, into his radio.

"I guess Ranma impressed 'em sir." Rick answered.

"Man, I'll never figure that kid out..."

HR.

Ranma sat just off stage, blinking in confusion. "What was THAT about?" She muttered as she heard the end of her cheering section.

Minmei walked up to her and said, "Ranma. Look in a mirror."

Ranma shrugged, got up and stepped over to the nearest mirror. Looking in, she noted the details. "Chinese shirt, Legs and arms exposed. Hair in normal pigtail...what's..." She trailed off as she realized that the shirt was actually looking a lot like a really small dress...and a pretty nice looking one, too. "Brilliant Saotome. Try and get yourself kicked out of a pageant by looking good." Ranma muttered as she surveyed herself again.

Minmei giggled behind her.

HR.

This was the third to last round, the swimsuit competition. Ranma was SURE that what she had this time would get her voted off. She looked in the mirror and nodded. The tight, body hugging red one piece was actually quite attractive. The thing she felt sure would get her out of this was the large, bold, black word printed across the front, right above the breasts. "BOY."

When Minmei saw it, she almost fell over laughing. She was wearing a modest two piece. Sammy had the same reaction as Minmei.

"Yep, this'll work." Ranma said, taking her position for when she was called out.

About 5 minutes later, she was called out. Ranma walked slowly across the stage, turning half way toward the audience to reveal the front of the suit. Suddenly, a ripple of laughter went from front to back as people who couldn't see were told about the suit by people who could. She smiled, waved and turned back to the stage exit.

"Now we will vote again, same procedure as the last two times." Furbish said. The room went silent as everyone cast they're votes. To Ranma's aggravation, she was still on the board and seemed to be catching up to Minmei and Jan Arden. Sammy was voted off, probably because of her very modest one piece.

"Next up is the talent contest. We will have one act from each woman." Furbish said, as he walked to the side of the stage. "First up is Lin Minmei with a song that she wrote herself."

Ranma clapped Minmei on the back. "Good luck out there Minmei."

Minmei smiled back and walked onto the stage. The lights dimmed and she began to sing. It was one of the most beautiful things Ranma had ever heard. The song was sung perfectly with no breaks or missed notes. When Minmei finished, the entire hall burst into applause. She grinned and walked back off of the stage.

"Minmei, THAT was incredible!" Ranma said, true wonder in her voice. "When did you write that?"

Minmei shrugged.

HR.

Roy Fokker whistled. "Man Hunter, that girlfriend of yours has a great set of pipes."

Roy could almost HEAR the grin in Rick's response. "Yeah, she does. Not to mention a great set of legs." Roy started laughing.

HR.

Ranma walked out to the middle of the stage, taking the microphone in one hand. "Hi, I'm singing a song that I first heard a friend of mine singing in a school talent contest a few months ago. I don't think I can do it justice but here goes."

Ranma began to sing. She wasn't as good as Minmei but she was nothing to sneeze at. She only missed one or two notes and the timing was perfect. When she finished, the crowd burst into a round of applause almost as big as the one for Minmei.

As Ranma looked at the results for the voting after the Talent contest, She began to get worried. She was right behind Minmei and she had left Jan Arden in the dust. Said Actress was sitting in the corner of the back stage area, glaring at everyone. Ranma just shrugged and ignored her.

There were only 5 people left in the running now and Ranma was one of them. This wasn't looking good.

Ranma sat on the chair, in front of four people that were going to ask her questions. She had heard what they'd asked the others and hoped she wouldn't have to answer some of them... Some of them had made her grind her teeth or shake violently.

"Alright, Miss Saotome." One of the people sitting in front of her said, "What do you think about Education."

Ranma blinked. "Like school?" The man nodded. "Well, it's supposed to be important but I usually slept through it and still managed to keep my grades above a fail." Ranma said, being far too blunt.

The crowd clapped and laughed. The man's eye twitched visibly.

"What do you think about being the first female RDF pilot?" Another person asked.

"First Female...what?" Ranma's eyebrows rose. "I'm not a female RDF Pilot. I'm a MALE RDF Pilot who turns into a female RDF pilot. Technically, I'm only the first Female RDF Pilot about 20 percent of the time, and I even try to avoid that."

More audience laughter.

The panel continued to question Ranma for another minute and she kept answering with what she thought was the correct and obvious answer. The audience thought it was a comedy show.

HR.

As Ranma walked off the stage, she saw Minmei snickering behind her hand. "Ranma, that was the funniest thing I've seen since Rick and Roy got into an hour long discussion of weather Gundam Wing or EVA were better and ended up in a thumb war."

Ranma blinked. "A what?"

"Never mind." Minmei said, as she walked out for questioning.

HR.

Ranma sat in a row with the other 4 finalists, waiting for the results of the final vote.

The announcer walked up to the microphone, with an envelope in his hand. "Now for the results of the vote. In fifth Place, Angela Lee." A Blond haired woman at the end of the row looked downcast and walked off the stage. "In fourth place, Andrea Haines." Another woman, on the opposite end of the row walked off the stage. "In third place, Jan Arden." The actress stomped off the stage, not even bothering to get her third place ribbon. "Well...And Now, our winner is..."

TO BE CONTINUED.

End Notes. Normally, I delete all of the notes from the original when I re-post it. The only reason this one's here is because, unlike most of the half-baked justifications and explanations in this series, it still makes some kind of sense.

(1.) Yeah, I know. Lisa's American Voice actor doesn't sound much like Akane but since both Robotech and Ranma were originally in Japanese and Ranma was originally a Manga with no voices, I call it poetic license. Deal with it.

Wow, even the author's notes from back then are kinda annoying... *Shrugs*


	7. Chapter 7, I herd U liek Mudkipz?

Ah, This chapter's the one where my bastardization of Minmei's character really starts to show. Then again, according to reviewers, this is infinitely better than her original character, which is apparently a lot like Chibi-Usa, only worse... I guess you could think of that as the good thing that came from this fanfic, maybe.

Anyways, sorry for the rambling. Here ya go.

Chapter 7, Ambush is a relative term.

Roy Fokker listened intently to his Radio as they were about to announce the winner of the pageant. He expected, of course, that it would be Minmei. As a result, he almost rolled his Veritech in a 180 as the winner was announced. "Ranma Saotome!"

"Um...Rick, did you just hear?" Roy asked, stunned.

"Yeah Roy, Yeah I did." Rick responded, equally stunned.

"Well, our patrol ended 3 minutes ago. let's go congratulate the kid." Roy said, a hint of a chuckle in his voice.

Suddenly, Ranma's replacement in the flight spoke up. "What's the big deal about that "Saotome" person winning?"

Roy laughed. "That "Saotome person" Used to fly skull 3."

The new skull 3 pilot just sputtered.

HR.

Minmei, unlike the others who had been told that they lost, was not disappointed. She was too busy laughing her butt off at the stunned and horrified expression on Ranma's face.

"Come on up here Captain Saotome!" Furbish said, enthusiastically.

Ranma numbly walked forward to the microphone.

"So, how do you feel?" Furbish asked, holding the mike in front of Ranma's mouth.

"Erhm...Well, kinda confused actually..." Ranma responded, hesitantly. "You guys do know I'm actually a guy right?"

The audience clapped, apparently acknowledging that point. Actually, the final vote was a combination of many things. About 1/3 of the half of the crowd that had known about Ranma's curse before the pageant voted for her just because she gave them a good laugh. Others in that side of the crowd honestly just thought Ranma was cute and didn't care that she was really a guy. As for the other half of the crowd, They were kind of confused by the constant references to one of the contestants being male, with such lines as "Do you see any men up there honey?" being repeated occasionally, but they did know good singing and humor and Ranma did both. That half of the crowd was a deadlock between Ranma and Minmei. In the end, Ranma had more votes and won.

Furbish laughed. "Well, in my office I told you that from the look of your picture, you would have a good chance of winning."

Ranma groaned.

Furbish walked over to the side of the stage and grabbed a white sash. Putting it over Ranma's head he said, "Now come on. Wave."

Ranma unthinkingly obeyed, still too stunned to do anything else. She heard clapping from behind her and turned. There, standing at the back stage entrance were...

"Roy? Rick? What's going on? I thought you guys were on patrol."

Roy walked up and clapped Ranma on the shoulder. "We figured we'd come and congratulate the lovely young lady who won the contest." He said, with a smirk. "Let's go to the Dragon. Minmei says she'll unlock it for us and even make us something."

Minmei could be seen, smiling and laughing, behind Roy.

Ranma growled. "I'll get you for that "Lovely Young Lady" crack...but I'm hungry so I'll take you up on that offer of free food."

As the group of four, Ranma, Roy, Rick and Minmei, walked to the door, Furbish ran up behind them.

"Wait! Captain Saotome, you forgot your prize."

Ranma blinked and turned. The older man handed her two pieces of paper. "What are these?"

"That's a contract for a recording company in town. The other is a Movie deal for when we get back to earth." Furbish said, pointing to the respective pieces of paper.

"Recording...Movie deal?" Ranma blinked a few times, shrugged and pocketed them. "Thanks I guess."

The four walked off.

HR.

"Sorry Minmei, I was honestly trying to lose that contest." Ranma said, as they walked down the street.

"It's Ok Ranma. I got to the finals and that comedy act was payback. I wish I'd gotten that recording deal though..." Minmei said, slightly longingly at the end.

Ranma pulled it out of her pocket and smoothed it out. Looking over it, she saw that there was no name on it except for the space for the signature. "Well, the contract isn't specific...You can have it if you want. I don't wanna sing anyways."

Minmei's eyes widened. "Really?" Her voice was excited.

"Yep, here you go." Ranma flipped the paper to Minmei. "I'm keeping that Movie deal though...It could be fun and if it's a martial arts flick..."

Roy laughed. "Kid...I've said this before and I'll say this again. You're weird."

Rick just walked silently, looking from Minmei to Ranma to Roy and back again. Then he spoke up. "You know captain, we look a lot like a couple of couples right now." He was immediately glared at by Ranma and Roy.

Two responses came at once. "Shut up Rick, before I hurt you."

Rick gulped.

The group walked into the white dragon after Minmei had unlocked it. "Yay, food!" Ranma said, enthusiastically.

Roy and Minmei laughed, Rick was still too nervous to find much funny.

"Oh, Can I get some hot water?" Ranma asked, sitting at a table.

Minmei nodded as the other two sat down next to Ranma.

Roy spoke up. "So, other than this...oddness, what's been going on with you kid?"

Ranma shrugged as she accepted a glass of warm water from Minmei. "Nothin' much, the squadron's been pulled off for repairs, as you know. These new types of Veritechs are supposed to be really good." She stopped as she poured the water over her head. He winced as his RDF uniform became uncomfortably tight for a second before the strings loosened off.

"Man, No matter how many times I see that..It's still weird." Minmei said, chuckling.

"Look at it from this side." Ranma said, also chuckling.

"No thank you!" Minmei said, vehemently, causing the other three to start laughing.

"Don't worry, I only got one packet of instant Nannichuan and I ain't wasting it on you." Ranma said. "I'll probably use it if I need to stay in normal form during a rain storm or something."

"Instant what?" Rick asked, confused.

"Oh, it's a powder that simulates a Jusenkyo curse. That's what I used on Lang a couple months back, Remember? Unfortunately it's only temporary."

Roy shrugged. "Whatever works." and then smiled as he saw Minmei, running off to the kitchen and returning with four plates of food.

Setting them down, she made a show of yanking her fingers back at Ranma's for fear of having them bitten off. The second said fingers were out of the way, Ranma lunged for the food.

"Man Minmei, I love your food, It's almost as good as Kasumi's." Ranma said from behind a mouth full of rice.

"Hey kid, I've always meant to ask, why do you eat that fast?" Roy asked, eating his food at a normal rate of speed.

"Well, I first started doing it when pops started stealing food off my plate. After a while of doing it, I realized that it was helping my reflexes. Getting food from a plate to my mouth that fast without spilling any, I mean." Ranma's unusually intelligent statement caught Roy off guard.

"Yeesh kid, is everything martial arts to you?"

"Pretty much." Ranma responded, shortly.

Rick, Roy and Minmei blinked.

"You know, the scary thing is...he's serious." Minmei muttered. Rick and Roy just nodded.

Ranma got up. "Well, I gotta go sleep this meal off. Thanks Minmei. Vermillion's got its first patrol in a week tomorrow and I think I'm gunna have to deal with some smart mouthed pilots. See ya."

"See ya later Kid." Roy said.

"Later Ranma. Don't hurt 'em too bad." Minmei chuckled.

Rick just shrugged.

HR.

Reko, Brun and Kunda were three Zentraedi technicians. About 3 hours ago, they had intercepted some sort of strange Micronian transmission from Zhor's ship. It looked like some sort of Combat Ritual. As Brun listened to the strange noises that two of the Micronian Females were making, he began subconsciously tapping his foot.

"Brun, what are you doing?" Reko asked.

"Come and listen to this Reko, it's pretty pleasant to listen to even if I can't understand the language."

Reko shrugged and walked over, putting on a headset. "Wow, you're right. This is nice. I wonder what kind of purpose it has in combat. Something to encourage the troops?"

Kunda, who had already heard the strange Micronian noises earlier, shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is that it's nice to listen to. I made a recording of it for myself. If I understood the little bit of their speech that I could make out correctly, the two Micronians who were making those noises were named "Ranmasaotome" and "Linminmei.""

Brun raised an eyebrow. "I wonder why such long names?"

Reko looked contemplative. "Well, the Meltraedi have pretty long names as well. Remember that "Meriaparino" and her Quadranos?"

Brun and Kunda nodded. It had seemed a little odd to call in a Meltraedi strike force for this mission...but Commander Bretai had to know what he was doing...right?

Reko took a recording of the entire signal from the Micronian ship out of the player. "I have to get this to Commander Bretai." The other two just nodded as he walked out of the room.

HR.

Ranma Saotome was rudely awakened from a dream about him, Akane and a Kasumi cooked picnic by the sound of something smashing on the hallway floor. Groaning, he rolled over and stuck his pillow over his head. As the banging and crashing sounds persisted, he finally got fed up and got up from his bunk, only wearing a pair of boxers and a T-shirt.

Opening his door, he yelled "Shut UP! Some people are tryin to sleep over he..." He trailed off as he saw the five people standing at his door, A bunch of Cameras arrayed behind them. "What the hell is going on here?"

One of the people spoke up. "We're here to interview Captain Saotome. She disappeared so fast after the pageant, we didn't get a chance."

Ranma growled. "So, you came around, banging stuff off the walls at 5 AM to INTERVIEW me? That's it, I'm goin back to bed. Unlike you jokers, I actually have a JOB to do in a few hours." He slammed the door.

The reporters exchanged glances. "Interview him?"

"Then he's ..."

"She wasn't kidding."

They knocked frantically at the door again. Growling, Ranma pulled on his uniform pants and shirt, figuring that he didn't have a chance of going back to sleep now.

"What is it?" He snapped, as he reopened the door.

"So you're Captain Saotome?" One of the five reporters, who had somehow missed Ranma's death glare spoke up.

"...Yeah, Why?" Ranma said. "Look, I'm busy with important work like helping to keep this place from being vaporized. I'd appreciate it if you people don't do this again. Got..." He was cut off by another of the five reporters throwing a bottle of water at him. "Um...and you did that because?" She asked, even more irritated.

All of the reporters blinked and began asking questions at once. Deciding this was getting ridiculous, Ranma just hopped over them, crushing a camera in the process and ran down the hall.

On her way to the white dragon for an early breakfast, Ranma cursed as she realized that the place was probably not open. Not to mention that she had left her wallet back in her room. To make her morning even better, she heard someone running up behind her, and jumped out of the way just in time as Ryoga stabbed his umbrella right through where she used to be.

"What did I do now, Ryoga?" Ranma asked, quickly getting annoyed with the lost boy's timing.

Ryoga almost let his grin escape as he said, "You entered the MISS Macross contest Ranma. What kind of a guy are you. Worse yet, you won." He swung out in a spin kick, missing Ranma as she retaliated with a brutal straight kick to his back.

"Look P-chan. I had no choice. As for winning...I tried to lose." Ranma said, exasperated.

"Shut up with your excuses Ranma. You sicken me!" Ryoga picked himself up from the ground where Ranma's kick had sent him. Brushing his engineer's overalls off, he charged.

Ranma engaged in a half hour struggle against Ryoga, until she managed to hit his "Instant Unconsciousness" shiatsu point and put him to sleep. "Damn...Ryoga's getting better..." She huffed as she placed the comatose lost boy on the ground. She whirled as she heard clapping.

"Roy? How're you doing?" Ranma asked, as she saw Roy Fokker sitting on a low wall next to the battle field.

"Ok, I'm just watching a pretty good fight. At least I was, until you knocked him out." Roy said, chuckling.

Ranma shrugged. "I'd probably have enjoyed it if I wasn't so damned tired."

Roy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you are up kinda early for you aren't you. Why?"

Ranma scowled. "Some idiot reporters showed up at my room. They made so much noise that I got up. When I opened the door and said I was Ranma Saotome, someone threw a bottle of cold water at me and started asking questions...so I ran."

Roy started laughing. "Kid, now you've got reporters after you, too? Funny, I thaught all you had to worry about was lost people and girls."

"Shut up Fokker." Ranma growled. "I'm the same rank as you now so I can say that."

Roy shrugged and walked off. "Better get moving Saotome, You're shift starts in 40 minutes."

"AK!" Ranma yelped as she saw the time displayed on a clock. She had been wandering longer than she had thought and that fight with Ryoga took up WAY too much time. She began running towards the area of the ship that contained the Vermillion Briefing room.

HR.

Ranma ran into Vermillion's briefing room, actually short of breath. Somehow, she had managed to end up on the complete opposite end of the ship and it had taken her 20 minutes to get back here. The problem was that the flight launched in another 20 minutes and Briefings usually took about that long.

"Hi Captain." Max said, Grinning. "Great work yesterday."

Ranma growled. "Shut up sterling or I'll assign you to maintenance again."

Ben spoke up. "Sir, Why are you a girl?"

Ranma looked down at herself and realized that she'd forgotten to snatch any hot water on her headlong rush through the ship. "That is a long story which I really don't want to get into. Let's just say that reporters are as annoying as everyone says they are."

Everyone blinked and decided not to ask.

Ranma walked to the podium at the front of the room. "Alright, our machines are back from the shop and have been upgraded to VF-1J Variants. Mine is still the same R type but yours should have more maneuverability and a better radar set. The J Variant has fewer missiles but a better lock system and its pilot to mecha link is marginally better than a VF-1A's. Mr. Sterling suggested these upgrades a week ago and we now have them. These planes should be a pleasure to fly. We've drawn close patrol today and for once that's good. We'll be testing out our new aircraft. Is that understood?"

Everyone in the squadron had big smiles on their faces. The general train of thought was 'Oohh A new toy!'

Ranma chuckled, noticing the grins on her pilots' faces. "Alright, let's get down to the launch bay."

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki came too shortly after Ranma ran out of sight. "Ow...that's one hell of a headache." He rubbed the back of his head. "Man, maybe I shouldn't have challenged him right after that disaster. NAH! that was fun!" He walked off into the darkness of a random maintenance passage, seeking the maintenance crew quarters. Needless to say, he wasn't seen for a while.

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda had been assigned the task of attempting to translate the Micronian language. From recordings of Micronian Radio chatter, as well as the Macross Television Network's broadcasts, they were making pretty good progress so far. Only a few words still eluded them and the intonation and grammatical structure was becoming clear.

"Brun, have you figured out what "YEHAW!" means yet?" Kunda asked, as he pored over the recordings of a pilot named "Gold 4."

"Not yet, He said it right after he shot down one of our pods...Maybe it's like "I've got a kill."" Brun answered, still thinking. This was going to be a LONG project...

HR.

Vermillion squadron was, once again, causing the bridge crew grief. They were repeating they're performance of a few months before, buzzing the bridge, the main boom and every other part of the Macross. This time, there was a difference. They were doing it MUCH faster. The new J type Veritechs were handling very well, as the chatter from Vermillion's pilots attested.

Gloval, having long ago gotten accustomed to the rather odd behavior of his two front line squadrons, smiled just a bit. "Those enemies are going to have one hell of a surprise next time they attack...Maybe we should refit skull as well..."

Lisa Hayes nodded. "The strange thing is that Captain Saotome seems to be able to keep up fine...and he's actually in a Veritech that's a bit slower than a VF-1A." There was slight admiration and something...else in her voice.

Gloval heard the something else but decided not to comment on it.

HR.

In the white dragon, External ship cameras showed Vermillion's fake dog fight on a television screen. Since the Macross Television Network couldn't always keep programming on the air, external camera feeds were often used as 'filler.' Several people were clustered around the display, cheering for one pilot or the other.

"Man, those new planes are impressive." Rick hunter said, as he sat and watched, Absent mindedly sipping a soft drink.

Roy nodded. "Hey, look. Sterling's almost got the kid...Oh, Nope."

Minmei walked up behind the two men. "Anything I can get you?" She asked, leaning down and kissing Rick on the cheek.

"A towel to wipe the sap off of this scene?" Roy asked, dryly.

Rick and Minmei glared at him.

"C'mon Minmei, watch the Air show with us. Vermillion's almost as impressive as we are." Rick said, automatically making it clear that Skull was still better than Vermillion.

"I don't know." Minmei said, trying to look contemplative. "The only Skull I've seen flying like that is Roy. I think Vermillion's got you guys beat." She laughed at the horrified expressions on Rick and Roy's faces.

HR.

Ranma slammed her thrusters to max and poured power into them as Vermillion 2, piloted by Max, flew in and tried to lock onto her with his missile sensor. "Sorry Sterling, Too slow." She swerved to the left, causing max to hit Ben Dixon instead.

"Hey Max, I thought we were on a team against the captain." Ben squawked.

Max retorted, "We are. Captain Saotome made me do that."

Ranma chuckled. Man this was still easy...although it was getting harder.

HR.

The next few days passed relatively peacefully. Ranma got rid of the reporters by the simple expedient of shooting a chi blast at a camera. they never came back after that, for some reason. Minmei used the record contract to start making an album and wasn't at the dragon as much anymore. Vermillion went out on Patrol, and on the third day, they engaged the enemy...and thrashed them soundly. Skull was taken off for repairs and refitting to VF-1J aircraft, which Roy was rather pleased with, until it was revealed that he was getting a VF-1R instead.

HR.

Ranma walked down the streets of Macross City, looking for good food or something to do. There was a lot less of the former since the dragon had temporarily closed and the latter had always been a rarity while off duty. As if responding to that thought, The Macross shook violently, and Ranma started running towards Vermillion's briefing room.

HR.

Vermillion squadron gathered in the Briefing room, slightly confused. Captain Saotome had called them all in for an emergency mission.

Ranma walked into the room and up to the podium at the front. "Alright, here's the situation. about half an hour ago, a spacecraft of unknown origin crashed into the Macross' main Radar array. Shortly after this, a message came in from outside." Ranma pressed a button on the podium.

"This is Commander Bretai of the Zentraedi. You're ship is blind and defenseless. You will surrender or we will take your ship by force. You have two hours to send your response."

Ranma pressed another button, cutting off the rest of the speech. "We've got a name for the enemy now. They're called the Zentraedi. We've been assigned to escort a Cat's Eye Recon jet which will scout the path for the Macross. Flight one will escort the jet and Flight two will hold in closer to the Macross to repel any enemy threats. We will launch in 25 minutes. Suit up."

HR.

Ranma stood in the launch bay, gaping in disbelief. "Commander Hayes? You're flying the Cat's Eye?"

Lisa nodded. "Captain Gloval felt that I would be the best candidate. Do you have a problem with that Saotome?"

"Commander, You're a valuable asset to the ship...we can't risk losing you." Ranma objected, looking worried.

"Look Captain, you have your orders. Now follow them." Lisa walked towards the Cat's Eye, leaving a sputtering Ranma.

HR.

Ranma and Vermillion squadron launched off of the Macross, quickly followed by the Cat's Eye. Ranma was still grumbling slightly about Commander Hayes coming on the mission, but worried about his career and rank, he did it with his mike turned off. Flicking the mike back on, he spoke. "This is Vermillion lead to flight 1. Form in box formation around the Cat's Eye. Follow its lead."

Acknowledgments came from the other two planes in his flight, and Ranma moved into formation.

"This is Commander Hayes, we are moving out to the front of the Macross, approximately 3 clicks out. We will hold that position until we are called in." Lisa's voice came over the radio.

HR.

"Sir, the Micronians are sending out some of their mecha." a technician reported from a station on the bridge of Bretai's flag ship.

"Good. Keep me informed of their position and prepare to begin operation Micron in 60 cycles." Bretai said. Soon, the Micronians would be captured and all of their secrets of protoculture would be his for the taking.

HR.

Ranma was getting bored. At least in a normal patrol, he was moving. Here, all he did was fly a straight path at an extremely slow speed. They had been at it for an hour now and it was getting old pretty fast. About half an hour ago, Max had started humming. He had told him to shut up several times but he just started up again. Ranma's head shot up and his eyes widened as he felt something. it felt like a spacefold signature.

"This is Vermillion lead to Flight 1. We got company. It's kind of vague...I can't localize it."

A few seconds later, Ranma realized why he couldn't localize it, but by that point, it was too late as the Zentraedi battle ship had already folded in, with Skull and its escort caught inside of its fold signature.

Ranma braked his Veritech frantically before he could hit the wall that had suddenly materialized in front of him. The other two Vermillion Veritechs did the same, but the Cat's Eye wasn't so lucky. It smashed into the wall and crunched.

"Commander!" Ranma yelled into his Radio.

A weak voice responded. "I'm fine captain. My copilot wasn't so lucky though." Lisa sounded like she was going to be sick.

The Cat's Eye was a two person aircraft. One to fly it and one to use the radar equipment. Apparently, the pilot had been in the forward cockpit and was now dead.

After hearing Lisa's reply, Ranma took a second to survey his surroundings. It wasn't a very big room, by Veritech standards. It was about 60 feet from floor to ceiling and only about 500 feet wide and long. There was a door in one wall.

"Is this an enemy ship?" Max asked, shining a spotlight from the head of his Veritech around the room.

"Well, it's big enough. I'd say we're in a supply closet or somethin." Ranma was interrupted by the sound of creaking metal as several giant humanoid beings ran into the room, carrying rifles. He swung his Gui-11 around and began shooting.

HR.

Captain Gloval's eye twitched. "Where the hell did that come from?" He demanded, looking at the large green Zentraedi vessel that had just appeared.

Emil Lang answered. "It appeared out of fold space a few seconds ago. It looks like some sort of flagship for their fleet."

"Where are Vermillion and Commander Hayes?" Gloval asked, having a sinking feeling that he already knew.

"They were inside the area of space that thing folded into, sir." Vanessa Leeds responded, somberly.

"Launch Skull Squadron and order Vermillion flight two to engage that target. We can't risk shooting the main cannon at it. Commander Hayes and her escort could still be alive in there." Gloval ordered.

Suddenly, a short range radar console began to beep nearby. "Sir," A random tech reported. "We've got a whole lot more signals coming in. It looks like a whole bunch of battle pods."

Gloval cursed, grabbed his pipe out of his pocket and clenched it in his teeth.

HR.

Roy Fokker ran down the Corridor, throwing on the top of his flight suit. He had been yanked out of a sound sleep by Captain Gloval's order and hadn't been briefed on the specifics yet, but in order to yank a squadron that had just finished a patrol back to the flight line, it must be important.

Seeing Rick running out of his room, generally in the same state as he was, he called. "Hurry it up hunter! We got a mission."

Rick worked harder at getting his uniform straight as he ran next to Roy. "So Captain, What's going on?"

"Don't know." Roy said shortly. "Gloval just said it was an emergency." Rounding the final corner, Roy ran up to his plane. A black haired man with a bandana tied around his head was standing next to it.

"Get going Captain. Vermillion's in trouble." the man said, as he did the final check on Roy's plane. "Bring Captain Saotome back alive...I want to kill him."

Roy blinked. The kid was in trouble? This guy wanted to kill him? Oh well, now wasn't the time. "Don't worry. Saotome's tough. he'll be alright." Jumping into His Veritech, he cranked the engine and taxied to the Catapult.

The rest of Skull lined up behind Roy as he was lobbed off of the launch deck. Captain Gloval came over the Radio directly, cutting out Sammy's circuit. "Captain Fokker. It is imperative that you clear those fighters as quickly as possible. Use all means necessary. The battleship in the distance has captured Vermillion squadron as well as Commander Hayes."

Roy's eyes widened. "Saotome got captured? With Commander Hayes? Yes sir, I'm on it."

HR.

Skull squadron tore into the Battle pods, destroying them as quickly as possible. The new J type Veritechs that they had been issued the day before were performing very well.

Roy Flew his Veritech in between two enemy battle pods and executed a 180 turn, switching to Battleoid mode and Spraying the two craft with fire. He dodged a missile from a third before switching back to fighter mode and launching a volley of his own. He smiled as his kill count went up one more.

Rick hunter flew through swarms of enemy Battle pods, dodging fire. This new Veritech was great. It handled a lot better than the old VF-1A and it had a better target lock system. Locking a new target, his gun pod automatically tracked it and he fired, blowing it to pieces. "Yeah, got one."

HR.

Ranma's Veritech finally ran out of ammo. Max's had done so about 30 seconds ago and Ben's was rapidly reaching that point. Going to hand to hand, Ranma realized that fighting PEOPLE in a Veritech was a whole different thing from using Martial Arts moves against battle pods. He was holding his own, but his fighting style reminded him of Ryoga. Punch hard and take the hits. There was one problem with this. The hits didn't bounce off his hide like they did Ryoga's. Several sub Systems had been destroyed and his Reflex storage unit had been shot off.

Just before his leg motors failed, Ranma desperately concentrated his Chi into his Head Anti Missile Laser. Firing it, he blew away several of the enemy... as well as a wall. Max Flew out of the hole into space, before it somehow sealed itself up. Apparently he was too far away, and a quick check with Lisa reassured him that she had managed to hang onto something. Ben was clutching one of the structural support beams at one corner of the room.

"Woops...Guess I over did it." Ranma said as his Machine's leg motors finally gave out, sending him crashing to the ground. He was soon followed by Ben, who's main Reflex energy unit had been hit by stray fire.

Commander Bretai walked into the small room where the Micronians had fought. Looking down he saw many of his own soldiers spread across the floor and two micronian Battle Mecha crumpled nearby. Feeling a slight stinging sensation in his lower leg, he looked down further to see a single Micronian shooting him with some sort of weapon. It just bounced off of his skin, tearing very small holes in his uniform.

Bretai laughed at the small show of resistance as two guards walked in, one picking up the Micronian who wasn't in a vehicle and the other getting the two unconscious pilots of the Mecha.

"Take them to the special holding cell." Bretai ordered.

"Yes Commander." The guards responded, before walking off.

Roy and the Skull had almost cleared away all of the Zentraedi battle pods when it happened. The large battleship on the edge of the combat area disappeared into Fold Space.

"Damn it! We're too late." Roy cursed, slamming his hand down on the instrument panel of his Veritech.

A radio signal came from the Macross. "This is SDF-1 to skull Squadron and Vermillion wing two. Return to base...I repeat, Return to base." Sammy porter's voice sounded sad and defeated as she spoke.

"This is skull lead. Acknowledged." Roy said, as he turned his Veritech around and flew towards the Macross, the rest of Skull squadron following behind him.

HR.

The mood in the Skull Briefing room after the battle was not a happy one. Every member of the squadron knew that this time, they had failed. They had been given an assignment and it had not been completed. This was a first for the skull, which had always succeeded before.

"If we'd just been a bit faster..." Roy muttered, frowning.

"Aw, C'mon Captain. We did the best we could." Rick Hunter said, trying to cheer up his CO.

"Just like we did with Neomoto. Now they're both gone. Both of the people I asked to join the RDF." Roy's voice was slightly bitter at the end.

"You said yourself Roy. Saotome's a tough kid. He'll be alright." Rick said, trying to reassure Roy. "Anyways. Yeah, you asked them to join but they decided to."

Roy just shook his head sadly and walked out of the room.

HR.

Later that day, Rick walked down the street towards the recording studio where Minmei was making her album. Walking in, He sat down at a chair in the waiting room and waited for Minmei to come out.

About 10 minutes later, an excited Minmei ran out of the door to the recording area, Ran up and hugged Rick. "Wow, It was so great Rick. I had so much fun out there, just singing and...and..." She trailed off at the somewhat sad expression on Rick's face. "What's wrong Rick?"

Rick thought for a moment and then decided to tell Minmei what was wrong. "Minmei...Captain Saotome's flight was taken by the enemy today...We haven't been able to trace them."

Minmei's eyes widened. "So...Ranma's..." She trailed off.

"I don't know...I just figured I should tell you before you heard it through the grape vine. I know he was your friend." Rick was surprised as Minmei started to cry into his uniform shirt. He just stroked her hair and tried to calm her down.

HR.

Ranma woke up, groggily looking around. Commander Hayes was sitting, slumped against a wall and Ben was knocked out about 3 feet away. "Unh...What hit me?" Ranma croaked as he propped himself up on hands and knees.

"The floor." Lisa responded, shortly. "They threw you and Ben in pretty hard. I was awake so I could cushion my fall but you guys thwacked your heads off the floor pretty hard."

Ranma looked around to see a small room with a window in one wall. The window showed a view of stars, slightly blurred and seemingly stretched. "Where are we?"

Lisa shrugged. "I think we're on some Zentraedi battleship. As for where it is, I think we're in fold space."

Looking around for a door, Ranma didn't see one. "Well, I don't know about you but I'm getting out of here." He started to charge a Chi ball in his hand...and screamed in agony.

Lisa jerked her head up to see Ranma, battle aura blazing, and collapsed on the floor, clutching his head. "Saotome?" She asked, tentatively.

Ranma's battle Aura seemed to be drawn towards the window and the Fold space beyond. Finally, It faded out as Ranma fell unconscious. "What the hell was THAT about?" Lisa muttered as she crouched beside the now still form of Ranma.

HR.

Ranma was dreaming. Not about Akane and a Picnic or about getting cured of his curse like he usually did. No. This was a very strange dream. He was floating in space, a white bubble surrounding him. He could tell that he was going very fast and that the bubble around him seemed to be made of Pure Reflex energy. Reaching out to try and touch it, His hand came in contact and he jerked it away. "I thought you couldn't get hurt in dreams." He complained as he cradled his burnt hand.

Suddenly, his eyes widened. He saw the entirety of the sphere for what it was. It was a...

HR.

"Saotome! Wake up!" Ranma jerked awake, losing the revelation that he was about to have as Lisa shook him.

Putting it out of his mind as unimportant, He responded. "Alright, Alright, I'm awake. What is it?"

Lisa sighed in relief. "You just screamed and collapsed about half an hour ago...I haven't been able to wake you up until now."

Ranma remembered back to the last time he was awake. "Ugh...Yeah. Remind me NEVER to use a chi attack in here again. That hurt."

At the simple frankness of this statement, Lisa actually started to laugh. The two heard a groan coming from one corner of the room and realized that Ben was awake. They spent the next little while filling him in on the situation.

HR.

Max Sterling was currently in a position that he thought, with good reason, he would NEVER be in. That position being sitting on top of a toilet...in a Veritech...which was wearing a Military uniform.

He had managed to hold onto a spike on the outside of the ship when he was forcefully ejected and work his way up to an airlock. Getting in, he had clubbed a Zentraedi guard with the butt of his Gui-11 and stole his uniform. Now, he was hiding in hopes of finding out where Captain Saotome and the others were.

HR.

Zigar hid in a supply closet on the lowest level of the Flagship. Whoever had clubbed him in the head and stolen his uniform as a prank was going to PAY!

HR.

Bretai studied the surveillance camera tapes of the Micronian captives. He was...confused. The female seemed to be the leader over the two males. Also, one of the males seemed to have some strange ability. He wondered if it had something to do with Protoculture.

One of his subordinates walked up to him and he gave him permission to speak. "Sir, When the Micronian male began to glow, our Fold engines got a small burst of extra power. We believe that the two are connected."

Bretai smiled. Yes, these Micronians were going to give him all of the secrets of protoculture...he just knew it.

HR.

Ranma was annoying. Such were the thoughts of Commander Lisa Hayes as she watched the aforementioned Martial Artist/Pilot running around the outer wall of they're cell. "Would you stop doing that?" She asked, irritated.

"Why?" Ranma asked, coming to a stop. "Am I bothering you?"

"Yes." Lisa said, bluntly.

Ranma just shrugged, sat down cross-legged and began to do Chi focusing exercises, Being careful not to generate a battle aura.

About 20 minutes later, Lisa spoke up. "Where do you think we're going Saotome?"

Ranma shrugged. "I dunno. I'm guessing they're main base or somethin."

Their question was answered in a rather short time as the window in front of them suddenly changed from a view of blurred stars to one of a single planet, surrounded by what seemed to be a solid wall of floating metal in the shape of battleships, carriers and fighters.

"Holy..." Ben said, whistling.

"How many of them are there." Ranma asked, awe in his voice.

Lisa just looked on, stunned. This she hadn't expected.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	8. Chapter 8, Warp 9 sir? Too slow!

Y'know, I just found out that I spent this entire fic misspelling Miriya's name. I know there are probably other in-series errors that I still haven't caught, but for some reason that one sticks with me. I've fixed it.

PS: I hope the rather idiosyncratic titles don't bother anyone. I'm kinda having as much fun as I can with this repost.

Having said that, on with the show.

Chapter 8. Spy Trouble.

Commander Lisa Hayes stared at the gigantic fleet floating in space around the planet. It had to contained more ships than she could possibly count, and all of them were about the same size as the SDF-1 or larger.

"This doesn't look good." Ben Dixon muttered from his place standing to the left of Lisa.

Ranma Saotome nodded. "Thank you Ben, I'm sure we didn't know that already."

HR.

Several hours later, the three prisoners' peace and quiet was disturbed by the rather unsettling sensation of their prison being picked up and carried somewhere. Ranma looked through the glass on the front. "It looks like we're headed for some sort of briefing room."

Lisa got up and looked with him. "Yeah, really big briefing room though."

The container was placed down on a table and the top removed. A booming voice came from what Ranma had taken to be a column in the corner of the room. As it moved into the light, it was revealed to be a very tall, even for a Zentraedi, man wearing a Military uniform. "Hello. I am commander Bretai."

If Ranma didn't know better, he would swear that the large man was trying to be friendly. "Hi. I'm Captain Saotome." He said, waving.

Three of the Zentraedi, sitting near the back of the room, perked up at this and began whispering to each other in Zentraedi.

Lisa groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead. "Saotome..."

Bretai continued. "We wish to know all of your secrets of protoculture. You will tell us or we will kill you." Ranma had the unsettling feeling that Bretai wouldn't bat an eyelash at killing all of them and would think of it as standard procedure.

"Protoculture? What do you mean?" Lisa asked, confused.

Bretai's voice had an edge of irritation now. "Protoculture. The power source that two of your pilots have been using in battle. The thing that powers your vessel."

Ranma spoke up. "You mean Chi and Reflex Energy?"

Lisa glared at Ranma. "Shut up Saotome." Ranma promptly obeyed.

"Why do you males take orders from that female?" A random Zentraedi, sitting next to Bretai asked.

Ranma blinked. "She's my CO. I take orders from her because she outranks me."

Another Zentraedi muttered. "Males and Females in the same force? Unthinkable!"

Ben finally put in his two cents. "So...you guys don't have any girls in your military? That must suck."

Ranma and Lisa glared at him.

Bretai was getting curious now. "No. We do not interact with the Meltraedi. It is odd that you Micronian races mix so freely."

Ranma blinked. "You...don't interact with each other? Erm...then how do you have children?"

"Children? That word does not translate...what do you mean?"

Ranma, Lisa and Ben looked at each other, confused, before Lisa broke the silence.

"You know. New generations. Little Zentraedi..."

They went back and forth like this for a few minutes, going from Ranking systems to Chi blasts before the subject came to Romance and love. The Zentraedi didn't know what was relevant to Protoculture and what wasn't and the Humans were just answering questions that they were asked.

"What's love?" Ranma said, confused. "It's like...dating and kissing and stuff..." He trailed off

"Dating and Kissing and stuff?" Bretai questioned. "Show us."

Ranma blinked and shook his head frantically. "No...that wouldn't be a good idea."

Bretai frowned. "Show us what you mean or we will be forced to kill you."

Lisa shrugged resignedly. Looking between Ranma and Ben, she made a decision. "Captain Saotome. Kiss me."

Ranma stumbled back, waving his hands. "I...I can't do that." He stuttered, images of precisely what the girls in Nerima would do to him if they even found out cycling like a demented slideshow through his mind.

Lisa frowned. "We have no choice, Saotome. We have to show them or they'll kill us. So do it. Do I have to make it an order?"

Ranma looked down for a second. "Fine."

He leaned forward and kissed Lisa on the lips. His pigtail shot straight out behind him. When they broke the kiss, Ranma had a dopey grin on his face.

'That was...' He quickly squelched that thought. 'Akane was right, I am a pervert...Don't think about that. Think about Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Spatulas, Shinai, Pain... Remember, the Uncute tomboy...commander Hayes is a rather cute tomboy...BAD RANMA!.'

Ben Dixon was sitting on the floor, laughing his head off. "Captain...the look on your face is priceless!"

The Zentraedi however, were having a MUCH different reaction. "That was...repulsive." one spat, looking with disgust and fear at the three Micronians. Bretai was shaking his head with his hand resting on his forehead. "Take them back to the holding area." He said, as two guards grabbed the containment unit, closed the lid and carried it off.

HR.

"Captain Saotome!" Lisa yelled, waving her hand in front of Ranma's face.

"Huh?" Ranma said, coming out of his daze.

"Are you alright?" Lisa said, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

"I...I'm fine commander. Thanks for asking." Ranma said, before returning to his former state.

Lisa started thinking out loud. "Those Zentraedi seemed really disgusted with that kiss back in the conference room."

Ranma nodded absent mindedly and grunted. Ben spoke up. "It seems to have done a number on the captain, too."

Ranma glared. "Shut up Ben. Now, Commander. What's your point?"

Lisa shrugged. "What if we did it again when a guard comes in and ran out when he's distracted? We are so small in relation to these people that it'd be easy to hide."

"Wait a second. Do it again?" Ranma said. "NO! No way, No how." He shook his head and held his hands out in front of him.

"Captain, it's the only thing I can think of." Then Lisa had an idea. If Saotome had gone through that pageant just to avoid upsetting a few girls, perhaps it would work. "You don't want to kiss me again...do you?" She said, putting a bit of fake hurt into her voice. She hated herself for doing this but they had to get out of here.

Ranma shook his head. "No! That's not it at all. Please don't cry!" He was going insane by this point.

Lisa hid a smile behind her hand. It had worked. "Then...You'll do it!"

Ranma groaned. "Why me?"

Ben collapsed on the floor, laughing his head off. This was better than an Anime. He was quickly silenced by Ranma's boot jabbing into his gut.

HR.

Max Sterling crept through the Zentraedi Battleship, as quietly as he could. If this had been an normal battleship, that wouldn't be all that quietly considering the fact that he was in a Veritech, but since it was a Zentraedi battleship where the crew walking around made just about as much noise as a Veritech, he was rather successful.

About 5 minutes ago, he had seen a small box being carried through the halls. Thinking that it may contain his wingmen or Commander Hayes, he had followed the guards who were carrying the box to a room. The problem now was that said two guards were guarding the door.

"Damn. All I have to do is get in there." Max muttered, scratching his chin inside his Mecha. Suddenly, his wish was granted as it was apparently time for the changing of the guard. The two Zentraedi who were standing at the door walked off, Talking in they're native language. "Probably bitching about guard duty." max muttered as he walked towards the door and opened it.

HR.

Lisa heard the sound of footsteps outside of their prison. "Get ready." She whispered and held Ranma by the arms. As the door began to open, she kissed him on the lips, causing the same rather interesting reaction in his pigtail.

"Am...I missing something here?" A voice came out of the Zentraedi standing at the door.

Lisa glanced up, seeing a glimpse of blue and white armor through the Zentraedi military uniform. Ranma recognized the voice first. "Max?"

"The one and only. Now let's get out of here before the next shift comes in." Max said, deciding to ask about the scene that he just saw later. He lowered his Veritech's arm to the floor and the three prisoners got onto it. Putting them into the pockets of his Zentraedi uniform, he walked out, Right into the path of two Zentraedi guards. "Erm...Hi guys." Max said, nervously.

The Zentraedi exchanged glances before pulling they're service pistols and starting to shoot. Max dove out of the way and started running. Engaging his boosters, the back of his Zentraedi uniform shredded as the flames ripped through it.

"Great work Max. Get the whole ship after us." Ranma said, sarcastically as gunfire erupted all around them.

"With all due respect captain, shut up!" Max said, dodging said gunfire.

Max slid his Veritech into a lift, pushing the button for what he thought was a hangar. Some of the gunfire hit his Veritech before the door closed and an alarm in the cockpit began making an ominous screeching noise. "Erm...Everyone, we've got a problem. Some of the gunfire from those Zentraedi guards hit my power reactor. It's going to lose containment in about 3 minutes."

"How lovely." Lisa muttered as she looked at Ranma and Ben.

"Get out of there Max." Ranma yelled. "We can go the rest of the way on foot."

Max leaned down and popped his cockpit, Jumping from it to the ground. He was quickly followed by Ranma, carrying Commander Hayes, and Ben.

"Saotome. You can put me down now." Hayes said, dryly.

Ranma blushed and set her down. Max and Ben snickered despite the seriousness of the situation. The elevator came to a stop and the four people ran out of it.

HR.

The Micronian Mecha hasn't gotten off of the lift." A Zentraedi officer said as he pushed the recall button. "Get ready to destroy it."

As the lift door opened, Max's Veritech's Power reactor finally bit the bullet...and vaporized several Zentraedi in the process.

HR.

The four RDF officers ran through the gigantic corridors of the Zentraedi battleship, looking for some method of escape. They had been running for the last 10 minutes and had so far found nothing accept for crew quarters.

"Man, this place is huge." Ranma said, as they rounded another corner.

"I wasn't in this part of the ship when I was looking for you." max said, slightly angrily. "So I don't know where the hell we are either."

Lisa and Ben just ran in silence.

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda stood in front of Commander Bretai, wearing their best dress uniforms.

"You want to what?" Bretai asked, incredulously.

"We want to be Micronized and put aboard the Micronian battle fortress. We could bring back valuable information about them." Reko explained, matter of factly.

Bretai pondered. "We are getting low on Protoculture supplies and Micronization takes a rather large amount. Can you assure me that you will get results?"

Reko, Brun and Kunda all nodded. "We have a plan of attack. We can get right in to their society." Brun said, remembering their plan to just wander around and ask questions.

Bretai considered for a few moments longer and then nodded. "A Meltraedi battle group is being deployed to attack the Macross. I will request that you be transported by them. Dismissed."

As the three soon to be Zentraedi spies walked out of Bretai's quarters, excited muttering could be heard.

HR.

Ranma and the three other RDF officers walked into a hangar containing a transport vessel.

"This must be going back to the Macross." Ranma said, pointing at the Zentraedi battle pods being loaded onto the transport. "We can catch a ride on it."

Lisa nodded. "Yes. Let's go."

Ben looked doubtful but followed the two senior officers. Who was he to question. Max just followed Ben.

As it turned out, the transport was headed back to the front lines. It was full of empty battle pods that would be filled with pilots when they arrived at the anti-SDF-1 fleet.

HR.

Commander Hayes struggled to hang on to the over sized controls of the Zentraedi Battle pod. "Saotome, Do you have those flight controls figured out yet?" She asked.

"Yeah, I think so. We can blast outta here as soon as the weapons are online." Ranma responded, balancing on an extremely large flight control stick.

Lisa nodded. "Well, they're online now. Lt. Dixon, do you have that Comm broadcasting an RDF IFF yet?"

Ben just nodded.

"Then Let's go!" Ranma said, eager to get out of the Zentraedi transport and back to the Familiar surroundings of the SDF-1.

Commander Hayes triggered the Battle Pod's lasers and blew the door off of the transport.

Ranma cranked up the engines and flew out, right into the middle of a dogfight. Skull Squadron was engaged in battle with several of the Pods from the transport, as well as some strange looking Battle pods that looked more like Mecha than most Zentraedi units.

"Saotome! What the hell is going on?" Lisa asked, panic in her voice as a missile flew past the pod's cockpit window.

"Just a normal dogfight Commander." Ranma said as he jumped on the thruster bar, causing the pod to accelerate. "Hey Max. Make sure the Macross don't shoot us down."

Max began broadcasting to the SDF-1.

HR.

Sammy Porter jerked up in her seat as she got a signal. "Captain, Signal coming in. It's Lt. Sterling from vermilion."

Captain Gloval bolted upright in his chair. "Put it on main audio."

"...of vermilion squadron. We have Commander Hayes and she's fine. There were no fatalities in the squadron. We're currently in a Zentraedi battle pod that's squawking RDF IFF codes. We can't get near the Macross because of the battle between Skull and the Zentraedi."

Gloval grinned as he heard this. "Miss Porter. Order Skull lead to escort that battle pod to the landing deck."

HR.

Roy Fokker flew in behind an enemy battle pod and opened fire, fragging it. "Hey, Got it!" He yelled as he flew through the debris cloud.

His Radio beeped. "Captain Fokker, This is the Macross. You have been ordered to escort the Zentraedi battle pod that's sending an RDF IFF signal in to the landing deck...It's vermilion squadron."

Roy blinked. "Vermilion... Understood Macross." He said, then he muttered more quietly. "How does the kid do that?"

HR.

Captain Ranma Saotome, Commander Lisa Hayes, Lt. Max Sterling and Lt. Ben Dixon stumbled out of the Zentraedi battle pod when it came to a stop on the landing deck of the SDF-1. They were surprised to see a rather large group of people waiting for them.

Lin Minmei, new celebrity of the Macross, Ran forward and hugged Ranma fiercely. Behind her, Rick hunter waved and smiled.

The thoughts of the other three people in the party were, 'What am I? Chopped liver?' until the rest of the crowd descended upon them, Captain Gloval making it very clear that he expected a full report from Commander Hayes in the morning.

HR.

Ranma had finally been let out of the Med lab after yet another session of "Guinea pig duty." He was, needless to say, not too happy. Commander Lang had insisted on doing a full physical on all of the people who had been captured by the Zentraedi and he wasn't going to wait until they had a chance to settle back down. Why would he ever do something like that?

Seeing Ben and Max waiting outside of the doors, he waved them over. "C'mon guys. The dragon ain't open but I'll buy you lunch at the mess."

Max grinned. "No captain, Minmei told us to come down to the dragon. Apparently she has something to discuss with you."

Ranma gulped. "That can't be good." Thankfully, his train of thought was interrupted as an alarm went off.

The intercom crackled to life. "All main line squadrons report to the Launch deck. We are under attack."

"Phew. Saved by the bell." Ranma muttered as the three pilots ran off to the Launch bay.

HR.

As Vermillion launched, Ranma took a second to look around the battle field. Those strange new battle pods were back, and making minced meat out of Gold and Blue squadrons who had already launched.

"Alright people." Ranma said, setting his radio to the Squadron's frequency. "We got some new playmates. Be careful out there." He then pushed his throttles forward and dove into battle.

The new Zentraedi battle pods seemed to be better equipped and piloted than the older models. Ranma could still shoot most of them down easily but Ben was having trouble and Max's usually Ranmaesque kill rate was looking more like Ben's old one.

Max's voice came over the Radio. "I think I see their leader. I'm going for it."

"Understood, Vermillion 2. Be careful." Ranma said, just barely rolling out of the way of a Zentraedi missile.

HR.

Max Sterling flew after the Zentraedi battle pod, attempting to get it locked in his targeting sights. 'Man, This guy's almost as good as the Captain.' He thought as he continued to futilely try and line up a shot. In frustration, he let off a burst of fire that skimmed over the battle pod's canopy. This was getting annoying...

HR.

Miriya Parina spun her power armor around and attempted to line up the Micronian mecha in her sights just as it's pilot let off a shot. Jerking back on her control stick, she managed to avoid the fire but just barely. 'This Micronian fights well.' She thought, diving out of the way of another burst and launching some of her Missiles.

Max evaded several of the Zentraedi battle pod's missiles before firing back with his own. One of them scored, causing the pod to reel and tip. It was obviously better armored than most Zentraedi aircraft, as it survived the hit, but it was hurting.

Miriya cursed as half of her systems failed from the hit she had just sustained. Her left engine had failed and her weapons system was offline. Growling, she thumbed her comm unit and, using the little Micronian she had picked up so far, said. "Miriya defeated now but you no do again!" She then flew back to her carrier, deciding that living was better than the alternative.

Max was suddenly reminded of one of Captain Saotome's stories about a "Kiss of death." It was really Too bad he didn't remember the other half of the story...

HR.

Vermillion and later Skull were able to destroy or heavily damage enough of the enemy battle pods to drive them back. Ranma put his Veritech down on the landing deck, quickly followed by the rest of Vermillion. Popping his Canopy, he wiped the sweat off of his brow. That Cockpit got hot after a while.

"Man that was one hell of a fight." He said, to no one in particular, as he climbed down to the ground.

Roy Fokker, who had just landed with Skull at the next landing zone over, nodded in agreement. "Yeah kid, you can say that again. I heard the Dragon's open for business again. Let's go get some eats."

Ranma's eyes lit up as he contemplated food cooked by Minmei. "I'm there!" He ran off so fast that Roy had a hard time catching up. They were soon followed by the rest of Skull and Vermillion.

HR.

Three rather strange looking men stood in a back alley of Macross city. They wore some sort of robes woven really coarsely and sandals on their feet.

Kunda spoke up. "From what we saw on our way here, We aren't wearing normal Micronian attire."

Reko nodded. "Yes but why aren't they wearing uniforms? This place seems so disorganized."

Brun nodded and was about to continue the conversation when they were interrupted by someone shouting, "Where the hell am I now?!"

Spinning around, the three Micronized spies saw a man, wearing what they identified as some sort of uniform, and pounding on a wall. Brun spoke up. "Some sort of passage."

The man turned around and blinked at the three apparitions in front of him. "Erm...yeah... Who are you?" Ryoga had been to almost every part of the SDF-1 and he had never seen these three before.

"I'm Reko, This is Brun and that's Kunda." Reko said, pointing.

"No last names?" Ryoga asked, questioningly.

Kunda spoke up. "Erm, yes we have a last name...it's...Hibiki!" He read off of the man's name tag.

Ryoga blinked. "You all have the same last name and it's Hibiki?" He was getting confused.

"Yes. We're brothers." Brun put his two cents in.

Ryoga nodded in understanding. "Ah. You must be from a different branch of the family from me. Well, I guess we're cousins or something. Hi. I'm Ryoga."

HR.

A few moments later, Ryoga walked out of the alley, leading his three 'cousins' to the civilian housing blocks. For once, he managed to do it without getting lost. "Well, since you're new, You'll want to register here and get jobs. Oh and before I forget." He rummaged in the pack, which he had never removed from his back since he got to the Macross for fear of losing it, and came out with some of his old sets of black and yellow clothing. "Here's some clothes for you. Whatever those robes are, they aren't very common around here."

The three Zentraedi nodded before taking the clothes. Each of them had the same thought. 'These Micronians are so kind.'

HR.

Miriya Parina sat in her quarters on the Meltraedi carrier, brooding. 'I will get you Vermillion 2.' She thought, having gotten the name of the craft that had almost shot her down from Micronian Broadcasts. 'If it's the last thing I do, I will get you."

She stared at the small star that was all that was visible of the Macross, Her teeth clenched in a feral snarl.

HR.

Ranma and Roy walked into the white dragon, ready to eat. Ranma had a big appetite as usual and Roy had seemed to gain one after his Chi training really started to work. Ranma had said that it was probably his body needing more fuel to produce the chi.

"Hey Minmei!" Ranma said, as he saw the aforementioned Chinese waitress behind the counter. "Can me n' Roy get one of my usual each? I'm buying."

Minmei nodded. "Coming right up Ranma." She said, unusually happily. Ranma wondered what she was so happy about but dismissed it a few minutes later as the food arrived.

"Hey kid, Is there more here than usual or is it just me?" Roy questioned, pointing at his plate.

Looking down, Ranma noticed the same. Shrugging he just said, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Roy." and kept eating.

A few minutes later, Roy and Ranma had finished they're meal. "Alright Minmei, What do I owe you?" Ranma questioned, reaching into his uniform jacket for his wallet.

"This one's on the house Ranma." Minmei said, a sunny smile on her face.

Ranma froze. If living for two years with Nabiki had taught him anything, it was that most places weren't like Ucchan's, giving him free food for no reason. "Alright Minmei, whadya want?" He said, eyes narrowing.

Minmei attempted to fake a look of hurt. "Who? Me?" She asked, looking shocked.

Even Ranma could tell that Minmei was lying through her teeth. Frowning, he said, "Yeah, you."

Minmei sighed. "Fine, you caught me. I was wondering if you'd do back up on my next CD?" She asked, hopefully.

Ranma blinked. "That's it? But I thought most idols didn't use back up except...NO!"

Minmei looked down. "But Ranma..."

"NO! No way, No how. I ain't singing as a girl on a CD. I only did it at the contest 'cuz I had to."

Minmei decided to resort to desperate measures. "But...but..." She began to sniffle.

Ranma got a panicked look on his face. "Hey, don't cry now. C'mon." He waved his hands in front of his face in a placating manor.

Minmei looked up, tears glimmering in the corners of her eyes. "But, I promised the record company that I could find a back up singer and...and..."

Ranma sighed. "Fine."

Minmei perked up immediately. "So you'll do it?"

"Yeah, I'll do it. I can't believe it but I'll do it."

"Oh Thank you Ranma!" Minmei said, jumping up and down.

Roy feigned a look of disgust. "Gees Saotome, you have no backbone at all."

Ranma's eye twitched. "Shut up, Roy."

Roy attempted to stifle his laughter. "I'm sorry kid but..." Roy started, before trailing off and starting to chuckle.

Rick walked in with Ben and Max behind him. "What's so funny, Captain Fokker?" He asked, sitting down at the table next to Roy. Ben and Max sat next to Ranma.

"Oh, not really much Rick. Just the funniest piece of manipulation I've ever seen. Oh, and the kid here's gunna sing on Minmei's next CD."

Rick chuckled. "So you talked him into it?"

Minmei nodded. "It worked just like Lt. Neomoto said it would when he told us those stories."

Ranma growled. "Hiro has caused me so much grief since he died..." he trailed off.

Max clapped Ranma on the shoulder. "Aw, Don't worry Captain. It won't be as bad as that Pageant right?"

Ranma growled again. "You mean the one you signed me up for?"

Max backed off with a sheepish grin on his face.

HR.

Minmei walked into the recording studio, having to drag a rather reluctant Redhead behind her. "C'mon Ranma. You promised."

Ranma grumbled.

The producer ran up. "Ah, Miss Minmei. You brought that back up singer with you. Now we can continue with the..." He trailed off as he caught sight of the young woman in the RDF uniform.

"Captain Saotome?" He said, in surprise.

Ranma nodded. "I don't know why I fall for the kicked puppy look...after all, I can use it."

The producer just laughed. "Well, at least I know you can sing. Both of you, this way."

HR.

Looking at the lyrics in the recording booth, Ranma's only thought was 'AK!' "I...can't sing this." she said, hesitantly.

Minmei looked at her, puzzled. "Why not?"

"It's so...so..." Ranma just shivered slightly.

Minmei laughed. "I'll throw in a free meal for every one you sing. I mean your normal meals not a standard one." She said, Resorting to bribery.

Ranma shrugged resignedly. "Fine. I'll do it."

Minmei grinned. "Thanks again Ranma. This is a big help for me."

Minmei heard Ranma mutter something about Rick and some Nyannichuan but ignored it.

HR.

Ranma walked out of the Recording studio, a slight spring in her step. "It's done! I'm DONE!"

Minmei followed behind her, trudging tiredly. "Um...Ranma?"

Ranma stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"It's not finished yet. Those were just the preliminary tapes and the voice test."

"H...how long?" Ranma asked, a note of dread in her voice.

:"About a week."

Ranma stopped, her eye twitching. "A... A week? You're really gunna owe me one when this is over."

Minmei just let out a relieved sigh that Ranma hadn't completely flipped.

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda walked down the street, in they're newly acquired black and yellow clothing. They glanced around, looking for something of interest to do. Noticing a sign in a store front, Brun glanced over. "What does "Help wanted" Mean?"

Reko shrugged. "I think it's one of those job things that Ryoga was telling us about."

"Let's go check it out." Kunda said, walking towards the place. The words "White Dragon" were visible over the door.

Lin Minmei looked up from her current position, scrubbing tables, to see three identically dressed men walking into the Restaurant. Walking over to them, she asked. "How may I help you?"

The leader spoke up in Japanese with some sort of slight but unplaceable accent. "I'm Kunda Hibiki. My brothers and I were looking for work and..."

Minmei's eyes lit up. "Ah. You're responding to the help wanted sign. I've started doing recording sessions and I need some relief staff to keep this place open. Can any of you cook?"

All three nodded. Most Zentraedi could cook, at least decent combat rations, and he felt confident that this Micronian food couldn't be all that different. "We all can cook."

"Ok. You can start any time. The pay isn't that good but..."

Minmei was cut off by a rather strange sight. The three men had bright smiles on they're faces and were giving each other high fives. "We got a job!" Reko said, happily.

Minmei backed off, wondering if her three new employees had flipped they're lids.

HR.

The next few days passed VERY slowly for Ranma. He ...er...rather She had been singing as back up for Minmei and, although it wasn't as bad as she'd thought it would be, it was still pretty bad. Ryoga only ran into his 'Cousins' once or twice. No doubt, he thought, due to them having as bad a sense of direction as him. Brun, Reko and Kunda, after being taught how to cook Ramen by Minmei, actually made some pretty good cooks and waiters for the dragon.

HR. (1)

Captain Gloval sat on the bridge, looking at the map of the solar system displayed on the main screen. The Macross's blip was just crossing Lunar orbit and would be back at earth soon. Only a few days to go...

TO BE CONTINUED.

Note.

(1.) Don't you just love those inept little plot-forcers I jammed in there?


	9. Chapter 9, LOLCatz iz cute!

Ah, this chapter illustrates my inability to do romance right, and my at the time seething hatred of Kuno Tatewaki. In my defense, life wasn't too good when I wrote chapter 22, the last part of this chapter. Even so, the character bashing was rather extreme.

This chapter is longer because it incorporates 4 of the original chapters, 19-22. The reason for this is that I started an arc in 19 which, originally, generated a wall of flames and indignant replies up until chapter 22, where I resolved it. Not wanting to deal with that again, Here's the whole bunch in one lump sum.

Also, Another of my original notes that should stay intact: MRE, (Meal Ready to Eat, Meal Rejected by Ethiopians.) A military staple that consists of freaze dried or otherwise preserved foods. Generally used if you're in a hurry or on a battlefield where good food isn't available. Generally agreed by military I've talked to as tasting like overly damp cardboard.

Now, On with the show!

Chapter 9, Homecomings and consequences.

Ranma walked into the white dragon for the first time in three days. Vermillion's patrol schedule hadn't magically changed due to her "Singing Career" and she hadn't really had time to stop at the dragon for a good meal, usually just grabbing a MRE and running. She had also been in female form for the entirety of the last three days, as it was rather pointless to change back just to sit in a Cockpit for four hours and then come home and crash.

As Ranma looked around the dragon, she noticed something rather odd. That being three men, each with strangely strong chi signatures, wearing duplicates of Ryoga's old clothes. The three men were busily running from table to table, taking and filling orders.

Shrugging, Ranma walked up to the register, where one of the men was taking orders. "Hey, where's Minmei?"

The man looked up. "Oh, Hello. Welcome to the white dragon. Miss Minmei's coming on shift in about 10 minutes."

Ranma blinked. 'Miss Minmei?' but shrugged it off. "Okay. Can I get a couple extra large orders of Ramen and a glass of Coke?"

The man nodded. "Coming right up. Oh, Miss Minmei says we should know all of our customers by name. Something about having a friendly atmosphere. What's your name?"

Ranma looked dubious, she was wearing a name tag after all but shrugged again. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Lead of Vermilion squadron. Funny, with that pageant thing and Minmei's new CD coming out, I woulda thought everyone'd know me."

"Ranma Saotome? The person who won the Miss Macross Pageant?" The man said, surprised.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah."

The man's face split into a bright smile as he put out a hand. "I'm Brun Hibiki, nice to meet you."

Ranma returned the western gesture of greeting. She never really got the point of it but whatever works right? "Hibiki? Are you related to Ryoga?"

Brun nodded. "He's my cousin."

That explained the rather odd dress of the three men. A moment later, a second man walked up, carrying Ranma's order. "Here you go." He said, setting it on the counter.

Ranma gratefully accepted the meal and walked to a table.

Brun and Reko called Kunda into the back room.

Brun started the conversation. "This job is great!"

Reko nodded. "We get to work with Miss Minmei. Her singing is..."

Kunda nodded and then continued. "Yeah, and that other person from the pageant just walked in, Ranma Saotome, she ordered a lot of food though."

"Really?" Reko asked. "Ranma Saotome too?"

The other two nodded.

"So, is it true that she can turn into a male?" Reko asked.

Brun shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't ask her. I know how to find out though." Saying that, he picked up a kettle full of warm water that had been sitting on the stove.

The other two nodded and they walked back out.

HR.

Ranma enthusiastically attacked her ramen in a corner booth. She was really hungry after those few days of eating nothing but MRE rations. She was rather suddenly interrupted by one of the Waiters, Brun he had introduced himself as, tripping and splashing her with a kettle of hot water.

Ranma resumed his male form and loosened off the straps of his clothes. "Thanks, Most of the time that works the other way around. I like being a warm water magnet."

Brun just looked confused. "That...is really interesting."

Ranma started laughing. ""Interesting," he says. Well, thanks anyways. I finished that back up thing with Minmei today so..."

Ignoring Brun, who was staring at him in fascination, Ranma continued eating his meal.

HR.

Lin Minmei and Rick Hunter walked down a street near the center of Macross city. "Hey Rick?" Minmei said, looking up at her boyfriend.

"Yeah?" Rick said, still walking towards the dragon, where the two were going to get lunch.

"I was wondering. We're apparently really close to earth now and I thought maybe when we get there, you'd fly me home." Minmei asked, hopefully.

Rick pondered for a second. "I think I should head home first. My family'll kill me if I don't. Why don't you ask Ranma or Roy? Ranma lives around there and Roy doesn't really have anywhere to go."

Minmei looked disappointed for a second but then nodded. "Thanks Rick. I think I'll do that."

HR.

Lisa Hayes sat at the window of her quarters, looking out at the small, but steadily growing, earth, now clearly visible. She at once was happy and sad at the sight. The Macross was going back home and she had helped in getting it there; on the other hand, she'd have to deal with her father again and... She banished the last thought from her mind. She did not feel anything for Captain Saotome. nope, not a thing. (1)

HR.

Captain Henry Gloval looked at the massive pile of leave requests on his desk and sighed. It seemed that everyone and his brother wanted to go on leave when the SDF-1 reached earth. Well, the pilots would definitely be approved, so would the infantry and destroid pilots. He was still having reservations about letting the engineers and command staff go.

HR.

Ranma walked down one of the Macross' main streets. His eye twitched as he caught sight of a picture in a window. Turning, he looked right at it and the twitch got worse. "Minmei Album Two, with back ups from Miss Macross, Ranma Saotome." Ranma groaned. The picture showed Minmei, with a Mic in her hand. in the background, Ranma stood, wearing the Chinese dress from the pageant. Ranma had wondered why Minmei had wanted them to pose for that shot.

Minmei saw Ranma walking down the street. "Hey Ranma!" She yelled, running after the pigtailed pilot.

Ranma turned his head and noticed Minmei. "Hi Minmei, what's up?" He was still irritated with the poster he had seen a few minutes ago but Minmei was one of those people that it was hard to stay mad at.

"I was wondering if you could do something for me." Minmei asked, looking at Ranma, pleading.

"If it doesn't involve my girl form, I'll consider it." Ranma said, cautiously.

Minmei smiled. "It doesn't. You see, Rick says he is going to America to see his family when we get back to earth and can't take me home...so I was wondering if you could. You live in Japan right?"

Ranma nodded. "Well, if that's all, I guess that's alright."

Minmei smiled hugely. "Thanks Ranma! I appreciate it. My mother makes this awesome shrimp tempura..."

Ranma grinned. "Well, how could I say no to free food?"

Minmei laughed.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki frowned down at his request for leave. Captain Gloval had apparently not granted it. He wouldn't be able to go back to Nerima and see Akane...no, he would never be able to see Akane again but at least he could have visited Akari. His shoulders slumped and a vague teal and black depression aura flared around him. "Man, My life sucks." Then he had an idea. "I'll go bug Ranma."

HR.

A Pigtailed Martial Artist/Pilot sneezed violently, startling Minmei.

"Are you getting sick, Ranma?" Minmei asked, concerned.

Ranma shrugged. "I don't usually get sick. Maybe someone's talking about me."

Minmei laughed. "You're superstitious aren't you?"

"Well, with a life like mine, being superstitious is a good idea. It keeps me out of some trouble."

Minmei started giggling hysterically.

HR.

The next two days passed quickly as the Macross approached the earth. It made planet fall in the Atlantic Ocean and the crew prepared for shore leave.

Ranma was packing up all of his stuff. there wasn't really much left, as most of his pack had been full of food supplies packed by Kasumi, but he still had some stuff. A knock at his door interrupted his packing. "Come in!" He called as he put one of his Chinese shirts in the pack.

Minmei walked in."Come on Ranma. Let's go!" Her excitement was evident.

"Just a few minutes Minmei. I gotta get all my stuff." Ranma responded, a slight tone of laughter in his voice. Picking up the pack and zipping it up, Ranma slung it over his shoulder. "Alright, let's go." He said, as he walked for the door. Minmei followed.

HR.

As Ranma and Minmei walked on to the launch deck, Ranma noticed Captain Gloval and Commander Hayes getting onto a transport. "I wonder where they're going." He muttered, apparently loud enough for Commander Hayes to hear.

"We're going to Antarctica base for debriefing Saotome. Not that it's any of your business." Lisa said, laughing slightly.

"Sorry Commander, I didn't mean for you to hear that." Ranma mumbled as he led Minmei to a two-seater VF-1D training aircraft. "C'mon. I requisitioned this for us. It's faster than a normal transport and I can land anywhere.

Minmei grinned. "That's so cool. I've always wanted to ride one of these."

Ranma laughed as he helped Minmei into the trainee cockpit and strapped her in. "We won't be flying that high so you don't need a flight suit. Just don't touch the controls and just talk if you want to. I'm leaving the intercom open." Ranma sealed the Cockpit and hopped into the Trainer one. "You ready Minmei?" He asked, as he powered up the Veritech.

"Yep." Minmei responded, only slightly nervous.

Deciding to spare the civilian the shock of a Cat shot, Ranma switched the Veritech to Guardian mode and used VTOL to get it off the ground. Flying out of the Launch bay, Ranma switched back to fighter and turned up the thrusters for the flight.

Minmei gasped as she saw the deck of the SDF-1 recede beneath her. "This is so cool." She breathed as the Veritech accelerated toward land.

Ranma grinned from his seat in the rear cockpit. "Isn't it though?"

HR.

The Lin family was interrupted during their lunch by a roaring sound coming from the front yard. Mr. Lin looked up. "What the..."

Lin Kyle, who was staying at the Lin family home for the next little while, spoke up. "That sounded like a jet engine."

Mrs. Lin blinked. "A jet engine? Why would." Suddenly a knock came on the door.

HR.

Ranma landed the training Veritech on the street in front of the Lin family home.

"Ranma, are you sure this is legal?" Minmei questioned, doubtfully.

Ranma laughed. "What are they gunna do? Tow me?" He said, as he climbed ut of the cockpit and jumped down to the ground. As he was helping Minmei out of the other cockpit, it started to rain.

"Yep, I'm back on earth alright." she said, annoyed. Pulling on the strings of her flight suit, she scowled at Minmei, who was laughing her head off.

"Sorry Ranma, You said you were a water magnet but..." Minmei trailed off, still laughing faintly.

Ranma just grimaced. "Let's get you inside. Maybe I can get some hot water and an umbrella."

Minmei nodded as she walked up and knocked on the door.

Mrs. Lin opened the door to see two people. There was a rather short redheaded girl wearing some sort of military uniform and... "Minmei!" She hugged her daughter. "The U.N. Spacy said you were dead. Are you alright?"

Mr. Lin and Kyle ran into the living room, hearing Mrs. Lin's shout. "Minmei. You're home!" Mr. Lin said, hugging his daughter. Then the three noticed the short redhead, leaning against the door casually.

"Who's this Minmei? She's cute." Kyle said.

Ranma's eye twitched slightly.

"Oh, that's my friend Ranma. She's a pilot in the RDF." Minmei said, seemingly missing Kyle's last comment.

Kyle grinned. "A pilot?" he walked over and grabbed Ranma's hand. "She's WAY too cute to be a pilot. You've gotta be kidding me."

Ranma's eye twitch got worse. "Let me go." She said, in a tightly controlled voice.

Kyle grinned. "Nah, don't be like that."

Minmei knew what was coming. Her cousin Kyle had always been too pushy with women and in this case... She began to laugh.

"Let me go or I will hurt you." Ranma said, grinding her teeth slightly.

Kyle kept the stupid grin on his face. "Now, come on. Don't be like tha..." He was cut off as Ranma's right foot found his chest and propelled him into the rear wall. Everyone in the room could have sworn that they heard, "I...Fight on..." Before Kyle collapsed into unconsciousness.

Mr. and Mrs. Lin blinked. "Well, yes. Do you want some tea Minmei?" Mrs. Lin asked, causing her husband, Minmei and Ranma to face fault.

"You wouldn't happen to know a girl named Kasumi, would you?" Ranma asked, deadpan.

HR.

As the four still conscious people in the Lin house hold sat down for tea, Ranma spoke up. "Can I please have some hot water?"

Minmei blinked. "Ranma, Do you really want to do that here? It could freak my parents out pretty bad."

Ranma shrugged. "Well, I'd rather go see my family in normal form. Anyways, they're gunna find out if they ever visit you on the SDF-1."

Mr. and Mrs. Lin were confused but Mrs. Lin had brought a kettle of hot water for the strange redheaded girl.

Ranma thanked the older woman before pouring some of the water over her head and resuming his normal form.

The two elder Lins blinked. "Um...how..." Mr. Lin said, confused.

"So that's why she kicked Kyle." Mrs. Lin said, understanding.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, the rain's stopped and I should get going to my own family. I'll pick you up later Minmei."

Minmei nodded as the pigtailed pilot walked out of the Lin house and got into his Veritech. He did not hear the storm of questions directed at Minmei, nor did he hear the family argument about her going back to the Macross.

HR.

Akane sat on her bed, glaring hatefully at the ring on her right ring finger. Why had her father done this to her. Just because Ranma was dead, why had he engaged her to someone else. Especially HIM. Why did she have to marry HIM. She continued glaring at the wedding band on her finger. "Oh, Ranma, Why did you have to go?" A single tear fell from her eye to land on the floor. Sighing, Akane Kuno got up to go and cook some dinner for her husband. Maybe some Miso soup.

Akane was interrupted from her train of thought on how best to poison Tatewaki Kuno by a call of "Akane!" From the front yard of the Tendo house.

'That voice...' She thought. 'It couldn't be...could it?'

She ran to the front door to see some sort of gigantic mecha standing in the center of the front yard, with, "Ranma!" climbing out of the cockpit.

At Akane's shout, Ranma looked over to see her, Smiling, at the front door. Hopping off of the Veritech, he ran to meet her. "Akane! I've missed you so much, I'm sorry I went away for so long. I..." He trailed off as he saw Akane's downcast expression. "What's the matter Akane? Did I do somethin stupid or something?" He asked, worriedly.

Akane's voice came out with a slight tremble. "I...I'm sorry Ranma...I couldn't stop them."

"What do you mean Akane?" Ranma asked, concern in his voice.

Ranma and Akane's tender moment was interrupted by a voice. "Ah! The sorcerer returns. It is too late. I have defeated you. I have married Akane Tendo and when I find the pigtailed girl, I shall have her as well."

Ranma spun to see Tatewaki Kuno, standing with his Bokken in one hand. "What do you mean you're married to Akane?" Ranma said, disbelieving.

Akane sighed. "Daddy made an arrangement with Kuno's father...I couldn't do anything about it. I'm sorry Ranma, but I didn't really want to deal with anything during the last few months, and I thought you were dead, and..." She held up her hand, displaying the wedding ring.

Ranma's eyes widened. "No. No WAY!" His battle aura blazed around him. "I...I fought for too damned long to get back home." His voice cracked. He normally would never be able to say this so clearly and confidently, however seeing Akane slip from his grasp, even if he'd never admitted to wanting to be with her, spurred him on. "I did it all to get back to you Akane..."

Akane began to cry. Kuno exploded in fury. "Foul Sorcerer. You will pay for upsetting the fierce tigress Akane!" he charged at Ranma.

In a fit of rage, Ranma flung a Moko-Takabisha at Kuno, sending him smashing into the Dojo's outer wall. This noise drew the tendos and Ranma's own family out of the house.

Ranma, seeing Mr. Tendo, walked up and grabbed him by the front of the shirt. "Why...why did you..." he stopped, dropping Mr Tendo when he realized what he was doing. Everyone around heard him chanting. "Protect the weak, do not hurt them."

Nodoka, who was at the Tendos with her husband, walked up behind Ranma. "Son, it's not manly to lose control like that."

Ranma spun. "Shut up." the venom in his voice sent everyone back several feet. He looked back to Mr. Tendo. "Can you dissolve the agreement with the Kunos?" he asked, coldly. He was using all of the soul of ice to keep himself under control after his last two outbursts.

Mr. Tendo shook his head. "I'm sorry Ranma. I made a contract and it was notarized. Also, Akane and the Kuno boy are married now so..." The old man trailed off, shaking his head and beginning to wheep copiously.

Ranma nodded, still struggling to keep his emotions under control. "I see. There's nothin for me here anymore. I...I'm going back home to the ship."

Nabiki spoke up. "What ship, Saotome?"

Ranma turned around, figuring that he would tell the Tendos and his parents what he was doing before he left. "I'm a pilot for the RDF. The ship is a battle fortress, the SDF-1." He turned back around, climbing into his Veritech and sealing the Canopy. The Dojo residents watched in astonishment as Ranma expertly piloted the Veritech up into the air and off into the distance. Akane sat on the ground, crying and Kuno still lay unconscious against a wall.

HR.

Ranma flew the VF-1D Veritech, barely aware of the world around him. 'How could they do that to me? Pop, I could expect it from, he's a moron. Mr tendo... How could Mom do this. Why didn't Akane fight it more? Wait, I can't blame Akane. Her father probably started his "Oh, poor me" routine..KUNO. I will come back and kill him one day...'

Ranma's thoughts came to an abrupt end as he realized that he had over flown the Lin household. Turning back, he landed in the front yard, popped the canopy and walked towards the house. Almost at the door, he heard the shouting.

"...But I have to go back!" Minmei's voice, angry and with signs that she had been crying.

"I don't care. You're staying here. It's way too dangerous up there for a civilian." Mr Lin's voice, sounding even more angry, but with a tinge of worry.

Ranma didn't bother knocking, slamming open the door. The shouting match was rudely interrupted. "Ranma?" Minmei said, noticing the blank look on Ranma's face and the tears that had left glistening streaks on his cheeks.

"C'mon Minmei." Ranma said, in an emotionless voice.

Mr. Lin walked up to Ranma. "My daughter isn't going anywhere."

Ranma's emotionless face cracked, revealing a mixture of anger and grief that confused everyone in the room. "Look, the captain ordered me, when he authorized me to take Minmei to see you, to return WITH her onboard and unharmed. If you stop me from completing my orders, I will flatten you."

Mr. Lin backed off, fear evident in his voice. "A...alright. I'm reporting this incident to your superiors though."

Minmei walked out behind Ranma, stunned. 'What was wrong with him?' This was far different from how he usually acted. "Ranma, what's wrong?"

Ranma turned his head and glared at Minmei, before his face softened slightly. "I'm sorry Minmei, Just don't ask, alright?" He continued walking towards the Veritech, quickly followed by Minmei.

HR.

The flight back to the SDF-1 was strangely devoid of speech. Minmei only heard the occasional mutter from Ranma about flight conditions. Trying to start a conversation, she spoke up. "So, how was your visit with your family and girlfriend?" Minmei could have said something less tactful at that moment, but this author can't think of it.

Ranma's back stiffened. "I said, don't talk about it." he snapped, a hint of a snarl in his voice. Minmei shrunk back in her seat, slightly scared now. At least Ranma had gotten her out of that argument with her parents.

HR.

Lisa Hayes and Henry Gloval sat inside the transport, as it made its way back to the Macross.

"I can't believe the UEG would do this!" Lisa said, angrily.

Gloval nodded. "Yes, I don't think we even can do what they ordered us to. We can't even disembark the Civilians."

Lisa nodded. "So, are you going to follow orders?"

Gloval grinned wryly. "Why Commander. That sounds like you're considering mutiny."

Lisa blinked. "You mean you're going to..."

Gloval nodded. "I'm going to send out a signal to any government that will listen. We are going to get those civilians off the ship."

Lisa smiled. "I'm not going to stop you sir." The transport was now approaching the Macross, followed by a VF-1D that was moving like a bullet. It flew right past the transport, crashing down on the landing deck and creating a furrow in the flooring.

"What the hell?" Gloval muttered, noticing the furrow in the deck floor. "That looks like the machine Captain Saotome requisitioned this morning."

"Saotome? I wonder what's got him in such a hurry." Lisa muttered, looking at the pigtailed pilot who had just exited the Veritech and was running for the door.

As the transport landed, Hayes and Gloval got out and walked over to the Veritech, seeing Lin Minmei, still belted into the forward cockpit. Popping it and getting her out, Lisa asked. "Where did Captain Saotome go?"

Minmei shook her head, shakily. The landing had rattled her quite a bit. "I...I don't know. Something that happened in his visit home must have upset him...he...I've never seen him like that."

Lisa and Captain Gloval exchanged troubled glances. "I'm putting him on reprimand for the damage to the bay floor. I don't care what happened to him, this is going too far." Gloval said, looking at the now very large and visible gouge.

Lisa just shrugged. "I'm going to see what's wrong with him. I'll tell him about the reprimand."

HR.

Ranma ran through the corridors and streets of the Macross, not caring where he would end up. Through sheer blind luck, he found himself in front of the Pilot's quarters block. Running inside and up to his room, he slumped on his bed and started to sob. 'Screw Pop's men don't cry bull shit.' He thought, as he curled up on the bed. 'All I went through, all we went through, Herb, those stupid Amazons, I even killed saffron myself for her and...' He buried his head in his pillow and started shaking.

About 5 minutes later, a knock came at his door. "Get lost!" He shouted, throwing a random object at the door. He realized too late that the object he had thrown was a picture of Akane. It shattered as it bounced off of the door and hit the ground.

"Look Saotome, I don't care what's wrong with you. I'm coming in there." Lisa's muffled voice came through the door.

Ranma reluctantly got off of his bed, walked over and unlocked the door, stepping over the shattered frame of the photo.

Lisa backed off in shock as she saw Ranma's face. His eyes were red and puffy, there were clear tear track marks going down the sides of his face and his lip was trembling. "Saotome?"

Ranma just growled. "What do you want, commander?" It was clear to Lisa that Ranma was attempting to get control of himself and she decided not to tell him about Captain Gloval's reprimand yet.

"I just came to see what's wrong. You tore a pretty large hole in the landing bay floor when you landed."

Ranma sighed. "I might as well tell someone. Come on in. Maybe it'll make it easier to deal with."

Lisa walked into Ranma's room, noticing the broken picture of an attractive Blue-black haired girl. there was a crack in the glass right over her smiling face.

She picked the picture up, brushing the shards off of it. "Your girlfriend Saotome?" She asked, studying the picture more closely.

"Not anymore..." Ranma said, trailing off. "Her father arranged a marriage for her while I was gone. She couldn't do anything about it."

Lisa winced. "That..." She trailed off.

"I...I worked so hard just to get back here and see her again." Ranma said, Softly

Lisa put her hand on his shoulder. "If it helps. I understand." Ranma shrugged the hand off of his shoulder roughly.

"Do you? I risked my life dozens of times to save her, and she did the same for me. Even when we wouldn't admit it, we lik... loved each other." Ranma laughed bitterly. "I finally get up the courage to admit it after it's too late."

Lisa shook her head. "Look Saotome. Aren't you the guy who dragged me out of Mars base, practically kicking and screaming?"

Ranma laughed slightly. "Kicking and screaming? Try cursing and swearing." He looked down at the bed. "But that...that was different."

Lisa smacked Ranma in the side of the head, causing him to jerk violently. "How Saotome? How was that different? Now straighten up and move on with your life. After all, that's what I did."

Ranma looked up at Lisa, surprised. "Thanks commander....Lisa, I needed that."

Lisa grinned at Ranma. "Any time Saoto...Ranma. Just don't start doing that again." Lisa walked out of the room, crushing some of the remaining glass from Akane's picture with her foot.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki walked out into the Launch bay and dropped his jaw. There was a HUGE gash in the deck, with a VF-1D sitting at the end of it. "What the hell?"

One of the technicians ran up to him. "Mr. Hibiki! Captain Saotome came in at high speed and crashed his Veritech. We've been trying to fix the damage for the last two hours."

Ryoga's eye twitched, and for the first time since a few days after he had arrived in Nerima, He screamed "RANMA! This is all your fault!" and meant it.

Growling, Ryoga went searching for Saotome blood.

HR.

Ranma sneezed as he left his room, dropping his Keycard on the ground. Cursing, he picked it up and swiped it through the slot, locking the door. Turning and walking down the hall, he thought of going to apologize to Minmei for how he had been acting recently.

HR.

Minmei had been back for a few hours now and had calmed down from both her family argument and her fear from the return flight. Seeing Ranma entering the dragon, she spoke up. "Hi Ranma... How are you doing?"

Ranma gave Minmei a sheepish look. "I'm sorry for taking you from your family like that. I was just a bit angry. As for the rough landing, I'm really sorry 'bout that."

Minmei smiled. "Aw, don't worry about taking me from my family. Kyle was getting this crazy idea about me taking him back with me. As for the landing... I think I have a way for you to make it up to me."

Ranma gulped.

HR.

Ryoga stomped into the White Dragon, looking for Ranma. He stopped in shock as he found Ranma... and started laughing. "Ranma, what are you doing wearing that?"

Ranma, in female form, frowned at Ryoga as she continued waiting tables. "Me and my big mouth." She muttered, going from table to table. She was wearing one of Minmei's standard waitressing outfits and doing her old Nekohanten routine of balancing orders on both arms and her head. She was a big hit with the customers, including Roy and the Skull, who were sitting in the corner laughing they're heads off.

Ryoga sweat dropped. "I was going to attack you... but I assume this is a bad time?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, if you attack me now, Minmei'll kill you." Most of her depression over Akane was gone or at least suppressed by the constant activity.

Ryoga gulped. "Minmei, angry with me." he shuddered. Minmei was like Kasumi. If she was angry with you, you were the scum of the earth. "Oh well, Can I get an extra large Ramen and some water?"

Ranma nodded, taking an order form out of her pocket with her plate free left hand and writing the order down with a pencil clenched in her teeth. Spitting the pencil out, she said, "Coming right up."

Minmei grinned from her position at the back of the Restaurant. When Lisa had asked her to keep Ranma busy, she somehow doubted this was what she had meant. It did work though.

HR.

Ryoga stood outside the White dragon, waiting for Ranma to get off shift. After all, he didn't want to blow up the best Ramen restaurant in the city did he?

Ranma walked out of the dragon, still in female form but wearing her RDF uniform. "Man, that was almost as bad as the Ol' Ghoul's training." She muttered, sighing tiredly.

"Ranma!" Ryoga yelled, jumping out of the shadows.

Ranma sighed again. "Not right now, P-chan. I just wanna go to bed."

Ryoga straightened out of his combat stance. "Alright."

Ranma blinked. "Alright? Ryoga are you sick?"

Ryoga shook his head. "I heard what happened with Akane, Ranma. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Ranma was totally confused now. "You're...what? Ryoga, are you sure you're alright?"

Ryoga sighed. "Ranma, I don't really hate you as much as I say I do. I used you as training. If it wasn't for me, you and Akane might have..." He stopped, looking ashamed. "I owe you for this..."

Ranma gawked. "You don't really hate me? You've been attacking me for three years and you don't really hate me?" Her eye was starting to twitch. "You used me for training?"

Ryoga stepped back, waving his arms frantically. "No, for some of that time I really did hate you. You gave me the curse and I was pissed at you for missing the man to man fight.. And you had Akane." he stopped as he saw Ranma, blue aura glowing around her body, and charging at him.

"RYOGA HIBIKI,. PREPARE TO DIE!"

Ryoga gulped and got into a defensive stance. 'This could hurt a bit.'

HR.

Ranma finished her revenge against Ryoga, panting. He lay, almost unconscious, with bruises all over his body.

"That felt good..." Ranma said, a grin on her face. Turning around she looked at Ryoga. "But it was wrong. I'm sorry for using you to vent, Ryoga."

Ryoga weakly raised a hand. "This wasn't as bad as the Bakusai Tenketsu training." He said, with a chuckling cough.

Ranma began to laugh. "You know what's funny?"

Ryoga shook his head, wincing at the pain.

"Neither of us got her in the end, you know?" Ranma said, only slightly depressed. "And the kicker is, the one who did get her was Kuno."

Ryoga nodded. "Well, we shoulda known. It was Nerima."

The two rivals sat in the middle of the street in front of the White Dragon, leaning against each other and trading small bits of conversation for the next thirty minutes.

After a while, the P.A. went off. "Will Ranma Saotome please report to the bridge. That's Ranma Saotome."

Ranma blinked. "Well, See ya later Ryoga. Do ya need any help getting to the Infirmary?" The badly beaten lost boy just waved in reply.

Ranma walked out of the lift onto the bridge to see Captain Gloval, sitting in his command chair. "Ah, Captain Saotome, can I talk to you in my office?"

Ranma shrugged and followed the Captain into his office. "So, you wanted to see me sir?"

Captain Gloval nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about two things. First of all, did you know that you did several thousand dollars worth of damage to the Launch deck today?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Erm, no?"

Gloval scowled at Ranma. "Captain, this ship takes time to repair. If that had happened in space, one of our catapults would be disabled and it would take us twice as long to launch fighters. I was thinking of throwing you into the brig for that stunt but I decided not to. Do not do that again. Understood?"

Ranma nodded mutely.

"Now for the second thing. Do you still have that contract that you won at the Miss Macross pageant? The one for a movie deal when we got back to earth?"

Ranma blinked. He had forgotten about that contract but he still had it, tucked into the pocket of his flight suit. He pulled it out and handed it to Gloval. "Here sir."

Gloval looked it over, "Now, this request is going to seem odd but..."

HR.

Roy Fokker walked into the White dragon, looking puzzled. The ship's fighter squadrons had been given a few weeks off while the SDF-1 was resupplied and refitted to go back into space. "I wonder what the kid called us here for." He muttered, as he noticed Ranma talking animatedly to Minmei at the front of the room.

Rick hunter shrugged. "You've got me, captain. We don't really have anything else to do though so we may as well find out."

Max sterling, who had come in behind the two Skull pilots with Ben Dixon, broke in. "I heard it has something to do with what he was called down to see the captain about earlier."

Roy shrugged, looking around. The Restaurant was filled with the people of Vermillion and Skull squadrons, as well as a few of the civilians who knew Ranma, Lisa and the main bridge crew and one of the flight deck engineering teams, lead by Ryoga Hibiki.

Ranma walked up to a Mic that had been set up at the front of the restaurant. Remembering a joke he had heard from Nabiki one time, he started speaking. "I suppose you all would like to know why I called you here today." He grinned sheepishly.

Some light laughter rippled through the Restaurant before Lisa yelled, "Get on with it, Ranma."

Ranma grinned nervously. "Well, Captain Gloval asked me to use that Movie recording contract I got at the Miss Macross competition to make a record of what's happened to the SDF-1 since we left earth, sorta as a way to tell all of earth's governments what's happened to us. My only problem is that I don't have a clue how to make a movie. Anyone here want to help?"

The room fell silent for a second and then everyone spoke at once. "I will."

Ranma sweat dropped. "Well, that's good."

Roy spoke up next. "Sure kid, you helped us out enough right?"

Most of the audience nodded in agreement. Ranma grinned. "Well, thanks guys. Let's get started."

HR.

As Ranma left the Dragon after the first planning meeting for the movie, Roy Fokker signaled for the rest of the people to stay.

"Alright. Now, we can get down to it." He said, confusing most of the people in the room. "The kid never said anything about a name for the movie."

The crowd started to murmur and Rick hunter spoke up. "Howbout "Little White Dragon." He suggested, and after getting a few strange looks, gestured around to the rest of the restaurant.

Several people raised hands in agreement but Roy was shaking his head. "No, I don't think so. Any other ideas?"

Ryoga put his hand up. "Wild horse 1?"

Roy blinked. "What?"

Ryoga continued. "Well, Ranma's name translated into English is "Wild horse." and he's the guy who started this, Not to mention that he's the leader of a squadron."

Roy grinned. "Good idea Hibiki. Any objections?"

The crowd cheered loudly. Roy nodded. "Well, I guess that's my answer."

HR.

Ranma walked into the launch bay to take a look at his VF-1R. He wasn't going to fly it in combat for a while and he was missing flying. He stopped cold as he caught sight of the plane. "What the..."

Ranma's Veritech was sitting in it's normal off line spot, looking perfectly normal. The only problem was the squadron flash painted on the tail. Instead of the Blue arrow head and writing of "Vermillion 1," There was a red circle with a picture of a rearing horse in black. The words "Wild Horse 1" Were written in white.

Ranma looked over at Ryoga, working in a repair bay down the line. "Hey Ryoga!" He yelled, sounding slightly aggravated.

Ryoga poked his head out of the repair bay. "Yeah?"

"What's the deal with the new squadron flash on my plane?" Ranma asked, pointing at the design.

Ryoga shrugged. "Captain Fokker asked me to do it. The captain approved the squadron name change so..." He trailed off as he saw Ranma's eye twitch.

"Name change?" Ranma asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, all of Vermillion got this flash. Orders from Captain Gloval and Captain Fokker. I think it's based off of that Movie you're supposed to be making. We named it last night."

Ranma groaned. "Alright, thanks Ryoga, but don't do any more work on my plane without asking first okay?"

Ryoga shrugged. "Sure thing Ranma. I gotta get back to work here."

Ranma walked out of the Launch bay, grumbling about Captains, both Naval and Air force.

HR.

Lisa Hayes walked through a corridor, a determined look on her face. 'I'm not going to take no for an answer.' She thought, before sighing. 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' She stopped at the door of one Captain Ranma Saotome and knocked.

"Just a second!" Came a voice from inside. A moment later the door opened to reveal Ranma in a red Chinese shirt and black pants. "Lisa?" He asked, puzzled.

"Erm..Hi Ranma. I know this isn't usually the way this is done, but do you want to come to the dragon for dinner?"

Ranma blinked. "Are you?"

Lisa cut him off. "Yes Ranma. I'm asking you out for dinner. You got a problem with that?" Her tone seemed to be daring him to say yes.

Ranma backed off hastily. "Erm...no. Not really. You just surprised me, that's all." He grinned slightly. "Well, I guess I should expect something like that from a tombo..." he stopped, a slight look of hurt in his eye. "Erm...yeah. Just a minute."

Lisa was just about to swat Ranma in the side of the head for calling her a tomboy when she noticed the look in his eyes. Not commenting, she waited until he had grabbed his wallet off of his bedside table and walked out.

"C'mon. I'm buying at least." Ranma said, as the two RDF officers walked towards the White Dragon.

HR.

Lin Minmei noticed the couple entering the dragon as she waited tables. Brun, Reko and Kunda had had to take the night off for some reason and she was back running the whole place. Walking over to the table that Ranma and Lisa had sat at, she asked. "What can I get you."

Ranma responded. "My usual for me and a medium Ramen for Lisa." He looked over, seeing Lisa's nod.

Minmei took the order, as well as taking note of the first name use by the pigtailed martial artist. The second she turned around, a big grin spread across her face. 'Wait until Sammy and the bridge crew get ahold of this one.'

Ranma and Lisa sat at the table, exchanging small talk. Well, small talk for them. Ranma was talking about the squadron and Lisa was talking about the command staff and what assholes the UEG government were being. They were both nodding and pretending to understand what the other was saying. Finally, the small talk gave way to actual conversation after the meal arrived.

"So, where'd you grow up anyways, Ranma?" Lisa asked, eating some of her Ramen with her chopsticks.

Ranma shrugged. "Here and there. Pops had me all over Japan and China. Especially china."

Lisa laughed at that last comment. "I guess I was the same. Dad kept moving with his Military assignments. I saw most of the U.S. and parts of Europe. I didn't pick up any weird Chinese curses or engagements though."

The couple laughed and talked for the next hour or so, barely noticing they're food. Minmei had forsaken her waitress duties and begun watching them when the three Hibiki brothers had finally returned. The couple seemed not even to notice.

HR.

The next few weeks went by quickly for Ranma and the rest of the crew of the SDF-1. The engineers were repairing battle damage and loading new supplies while the pilots, both Veritech and Destroid, were working with the civilians on the "Wild Horse 1 Project." Due to the fact that it was based almost entirely inside the SDF-1 and Macross city, the film was being produced in record time. It didn't even need actors as almost all of the original people were still onboard. The only actor needed was a replacement for Hiroshi. One of Minmei's waiters volunteered, with the puzzling comment, "It will let me learn more about culture."

The majority of the shooting was done and all that was left before publication was the editing.

As for Ranma, while he was usually busy working on "Wild Horse 1," He and Lisa Hayes had gone on a few more dates and the rumor mill was purring along at full speed about them.

Vermillion's name change sat just fine with the pilots, who thought it was cool being referred to as the "Wild Horses." The only explanation that could be found for this was that Ranma's weird attitude had rubbed off on his wingmen.

HR.

Rick Hunter, who had volunteered to do the editing on the final few scenes of Wild Horse 1, popped the data disk out of the recorder. "It's done!" He yelled, triumphantly. Roy Fokker looked at him oddly.

"Alright Rick, Let's see it." He said, slightly worried about his wingman's sanity.

Rick just grinned and popped the disk back into the recorder again, pressing play. Roy and Rick spent the next two and a half hours watching the movie.

Roy spoke up next. "That was pretty good." Rick nodded.

The two Skull flight pilots walked out of the computer lab, Roy carrying the disk.

HR.

Ranma sat in the front row of the Macross City movie theater, Lisa sitting next to him. "I wonder how this turned out?" He said, reaching for a hand full of popcorn. "I haven't seen it since the edit."

Lisa grinned at him. "You aren't worried are you Ranma? Looking stupid on film?"

Ranma grinned back. "If I worried about looking stupid, I wouldn't have done half of the stuff I did back in Nerima."

The two laughed at this as the film started. They sat through it in silence. The only sound either made was when Lisa started Crying at Hiroshi's death and Ranma's song. Ranma had a hard time keeping emotional control himself there. The soft drink next to him developed a few more ice cubes.

HR.

Ranma and Lisa walked out of the theater, blinking at the sudden brightness. "It was pretty good, huh?" Ranma asked, smirking.

Lisa nodded. "I think my acting was best."

Ranma laughed. "Yeah, I agree." He had gotten a bit smarter since Nerima. "But mine was pretty good, too." But not much.

HR.

At the Tendo Dojo, a crashing sound was heard as an overly persistant kendoist flew through a wall.

"And STAY out this time!" The voice of Akane Kuno echoed from her bedroom. Tatewaki Kuno groaned.

"Ah! My fierce tigress! I am not worthy."

He missed Nabiki glaring at him from the couch. "Kuno Baby. That's another thousand yen."

Kuno growled as he handed Nabiki a wad of bills. He perked up as he saw Akane walking downstairs. "Ah! Akane. You have come to embrace me correct?"

Akane swung a leg out and smashed Kuno in the head. "Shut up you perverted idiot!" Akane was angry... Very angry. This was the fifth time Kuno had tried to sneak into her room this week. She had an idea to get rid of Kuno for a while. "Hey Kuno! Howbout I make some dinner for you?"

Kuno hopped up from his position on the floor. "Really? Oh! I am the luckiest and bravest Samurai in the world! Of course I do deserve it."

Akane grinned. 'He deserves it alright.' She had finally admitted that her cooking was a bit sub-par, and now it was the only thing that kept Kuno away from her. The stupid idiot would eat it every time she made it and, having a much weaker constitution than Ranma, he would be out for about 3 days.

Akane walked into the Lab...er... Kitchen and returned with her most recent creation. She had added a lot of bright colorful ingredients, including this red and orange canister labeled "Raid" In romaji. She wasn't sure what "Raid" meant, but it had that skull and cross bones seal on it so it must be good.

After Kuno's latest experience of Akane brand Chemical weapons, he was out for the next few hours.

Nabiki spoke up from the couch. "Hey Akane. There's a new movie coming on in a few minutes. They say it was made on the SDF-1."

Akane blinked. "Isn't that where Ranma is?" The slight suppressed pain in her voice was still audible even after all of this time.

Nabiki nodded. "He's supposed to be in..." She was cut off as Akane flew to the couch and plopped down next to her "...it."

"What channel is it on?" Akane asked, excitedly. She couldn't merry Ranma, due to her father and Kuno's father's stupid arrangement, but she could still see what he was doing.

"TV Tokyo 10." Nabiki said, flipping through the TV Guide.

Akane grabbed the converter and switched channels.

An older, distinguished looking man wearing an RDF uniform appeared on the screen. He began to speak. "Hello, I am captain Gloval of the SDF-1. We bring you this as a commemoration of the trials that the brave men and women of the SDF-1, both Military and Civilian, went through to get us back home. We thank you for watching."

The screen went black and came up with a scene of a city on an island. There were tall buildings in the background, and three men standing in front of some sort of aircraft in the foreground.

"Ranma!" Akane said, recognizing one of the men. Soun and Genma walked in at this.

"Where's that ungrateful boy of mine." Genma asked, looking around.

"On TV, and shut up about him being ungrateful." Akane snapped, surprising the older people.

Kasumi walked in, noticing the screen and commenting. "Oh My. Ranma-Kun's on Television?"

All of the Tendos and the panda man sat around the TV, watching as the story of the SDF-1 was retold.

"How weak." Genma sneered, as he saw his son, in female form, being carried out of the destroyed cockpit of a VF-1A. Akane's eye began to twitch at this and Kasumi actually generated a small glare.

Soun burst out crying as he saw the scene where Hiroshi died, and everyone else was sniffling. All accept for Genma, who was criticizing Ranma for not controlling his emotions well enough. Akane's eye twitch got worse.

At Mars base, Akane's anger at Genma momentarily switched to his son as she saw Ranma talking to Lisa. She lowered her head in shame, realizing that she had no right to be jealous of Ranma anymore.

At the Miss Macross pageant, everyone was laughing hysterically. Akane had tears in her eyes, for once, not caused by the loss of Ranma. Even Nabiki was giggling like an ordinary school girl.

The movie ended shortly after the Macross had returned to earth. The final scene was one of Ranma's Veritech slamming into the Macross's launch deck. Roy Fokker came on in voice over.

"I don't know what made the kid so mad that day. He never told us. All I know is that shortly after, Engineer Hibiki showed up in Commander Lang's medlab with severe bruising. Well, we're back on earth now. We finally made it. Now all we have to do is find somewhere to let the civilians off. The UEG doesn't seem to want to let us return them home. Well, I'm Captain Roy Fokker of the skull. One of Ranma Saotome's best friends. He's only one of the people who helped to get us home but he and his squadron will be forever immortalized as the "Wild Horses." Man, that sounded cheesy eh kid? Well, I gotta go."

The screen faded to black and the credits rolled. The Tendo family sat, stunned, Absorbing the information in the movie.

"Ranma's a squadron leader?" Akane asked, slightly amazed.

"Never knew he had it in him." Nabiki said, in her usual dry tone.

Kasumi just nodded and said, "Oh My."

Kuno started to recover early from Akane's food, whereupon she smashed him into the floor, Knocking him out again.

HR.

Akane Kuno sat in her room, crying. She had run up here shortly after the end credits of "Wild Horse 1." and hadn't come out yet. Her father had come up, begging her to come out. She had opened the door for a few seconds to allow the passage of a brick and then closed it. Mr. Tendo was now crumpled at the base of the main stairs, nursing a bump on his head.

Kasumi had called her for dinner but Akane had ignored her. Even Nabiki had made an attempt, in her own special way, to get Akane to come out.

All Akane could think about was Ranma. What he had gone through to get back to earth. What he had found when he got back. Her married to Kuno. She winced and looked disgusted at that thought. speaking of Kuno, she could hear his foot steps, coming up the stares. Coming to a decision, Akane began to pack a bag. Throwing in a few of her normal dresses as well as a tooth brush and some other stuff, Akane slung the bag over her shoulder, climbed out her window and down the drainpipe to the ground. 5 seconds later, Kuno walked into her room and noticed that she was gone.

"Akane? Where have you gone?" He said, looking around in puzzlement. Holding his Kendo Bokken high, he yelled. "I shall find you!"

HR.

Akane walked towards the Nerima branch of the Tokyo central transit system. She knew that if she could get there, she could catch a train out to the docks and catch one of the supply transports going to the SDF-1. She was going to see Ranma again, even if she had to run away from home and go Ronin to do it.

walking towards the main train terminal, she was stopped by a voice coming from behind her. "Stop! My fierce Tigress Akane. Do not go!"

Whirling, Akane saw the form of an idiotic Kendoist running towards her. Sniffing, she turned back towards the entrance. She was stopped a moment later by a Bokken slamming into her stomach. "Oof!"

Kuno had a pained and angered expression on his face. "You shall not run to join the sorcerer! I shall fight you myself to stop you."

Akane was surprised. Kuno looked serious. Almost like he usually did in a fight with Ranma. She didn't care. She had to get past him. Charging, Akane was battered by rapid fire sword blows and forced to draw back. "Kuno, Get out of my WAY!" She yelled, a bright red battle aura raging around her.

"I cannot allow you to make such a grievous error as that which you were about to make! My beloved Akane, I shall fight you with the fullness of my strength if it means stopping you from running to the Demon incarnate known as Ranma Saotome." Kuno charged at Akane, swinging his Bokken. He was no match for Ranma but then again, neither was Akane. The two were actually rather equal in martial skill. The battle raged, one side fueled by desperation and the other by 'Love' for the next hour.

Akane was giving as good as she got but it just wasn't cutting it. She could feel her hope of a quick victory fading as Kuno fought. A few seconds later, Akane caught sight of something in one of the small televisions hanging in the train station that stopped her cold. The SDF-1 was shown on screen. It was lifting out of the ocean, water cascading from the sides.

"No." Akane mouthed, looking on in horror. "I'm too late?" Her horrified and pained expression quickly turned to one of anger as she turned back to Kuno. "It's your fault!" she began radiating pure anger chi. It was quickly supplemented with that of her frustration over missing her chance, as well as depression over the loss of Ranma. "It's all... your fault." She spat, her eyes flaring. "I lost him Because of you!" She threw her hands forward and released all of her emotional energy at the target of her wrath with a scream of rage. Kuno never had a chance. He didn't even have time to scream as the blast slammed into him and vaporized his body in two seconds flat. Akane crumpled to the ground and began to cry in the middle of the station, which had cleared out during her battle.

HR.

Ukyo and Shampoo had both felt the awesome power that had been released at the center of Nerima. They were not as good at chi sensing as Ranma, Ryoga or Cologne, but it would take a blind man not to see the immense burst of light that was emitted from the street near the train station. Ukyo arrived first, seeing Akane crumpled on the ground, crying.

"Akane..." She said, shocked. The youngest Tendo...er Kuno had always shown her emotions but Ukyo had hardly ever seen her break down like this. "What's wrong?"

Akane looked up, red rimmed eyes still trailing tears. "It...it's Ranma."

Ukyo looked puzzled. "What about Ranma Honey. He died." Her voice cracked slightly. "A long time ago. Why are you crying now?"

Akane sniffed. "He didn't die Ukyo, He survived. He just left on the SDF-1 and I can't get to him anymore."

Ukyo reeled back. Ranma was on the government's new battle fortress? "We have to go see him!" She said, excitedly.

Akane growled. "We can't. The SDF-1 just launched again. We can't get onto it anymore... It's all Kuno's fault."

Ukyo looked puzzled. True, Akane had a right to hate Kuno but right now she was sounding a lot like Ryoga. "All Kuno's fault?"

Suddenly Shampoo arrived on the scene, having heard the last few minutes of conversation. "What Kitchen Destroyer mean it all stick boy's fault?"

Akane began to sob harder and said, "I would have made it to see Ranma again if Kuno hadn't gotten in the way. I got rid of Kuno but it was too late."

"Got rid of?" The other two women asked, puzzled. Ukyo caught sight of a scorched piece of wood, lying on the ground several feet away from Akane. It was the tip of Kuno's Bokken. The rest was burnt away. "Akane... did you?"

Akane glumly nodded.

Ukyo and Shampoo stepped back from the crying Akane. If she had done THAT to Kuno... Then Ukyo overcame her fear. If Ranma was really gone like Akane said, she wasn't Akane's rival for his love anymore and the other girl looked upset. "It's alright Akane... we'll help you out. Shampoo and me."

The Amazon nodded. "I help cheer Kitchen Destroyer up. There Amazon technique for that."

Akane looked up and the tears stopped flowing for the first time since the Kuno incident. "Th...thank you." She sniffed, hugging Ukyo. The Okanomiyaki sheff just sat there, trying to comfort the other girl.

HR.

Akane trudged back through the door to the Tendo Dojo later on that night. Ukyo and Shampoo had actually been serious about trying to cheer her up and she had had some fun. Unfortunately, every once in a while her mind would come back to Ranma and she would become depressed again. Her usually bright red battle aura was now a sickly greenish color when she manifested it and it reminded her more of Ryoga's than she felt comfortable with.

Kasumi walked up to her as she took off her shoes at the front door. "Oh! Akane. You're home. There's dinner on the table for you..." She trailed off as she saw the bleak look on her younger sister's face. "Akane. What's wrong?"

Akane just muttered something unintelligible before stalking off into the kitchen. Kasumi's face bore a worried expression for a second before she quickly covered it up with her usual cheerful one. 'I'd better go see what's wrong.' She thought, walking into the kitchen. Nabiki, who had heard the exchange in the front hall, followed closely behind.

The two elder Tendo sisters comforted Akane just as the former rivals had. They were shocked that she had almost ran off to the SDF-1 and when Akane told them what she had done to kuno, they smiled at her. Nabiki was the first to speak after that. "Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. I've been trying to get him to stop bugging me for "Pigtailed Goddess" Pictures since Saotome disappeared."

Kasumi nodded. "That Tatewaki was very rude. You did the right thing Akane." She smiled.

Akane's sniffles died down. She wasn't going to see Ranma again, she had to accept that. At least Kuno was out of the way now though.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	10. Chapter 10, My hometown's a crator

Hi folks. Y'know, this chapter was actually kinda enjoyable to read. So was chapter 9, truth be told, even with all the character bashing.

ANYWAYS! I'd just like to repeat a note I originally put on chapter 24, the second half of this chapter. I still have not seen a single episode of Robotech past the seventh. It probably doesn't matter, since I haven't tweaked the plot, but for the few of you who are reading this for the first time, yes. I wrote it entirely without having seen a large portion of the series, only using episode guides. It was a test of whether I could write a fanfic without knowing what the hell I was talking about. Although today I consider this thing a little bit of an 'old shame,' at the time I thought I'd succeeded.

Anyhow, I talk too much. On with the show!

Chapter 10, The battle of Ontario.

Captain Gloval sat at his desk, reading maintenance reports. The SDF-1 was almost completely refitted and it's new firepower was quite substantial. All of the battle damage from the Zentraedi assaults had been repaired and the ship had been fully resupplied. The only problem gloval had now was that the civilian population still hadn't been evacuated. Sighing, he put down the final maintenance report and walked to the bridge door.

Walking out, he took note of the bridge crew working diligently to prepare the ship for launch.

"Sammy. Any word on asylum for the civilians?" Gloval asked, hopefully.

Sammy porter sighed. "No sir. We have had several messages of thanks for the "Great film" and the UEG has been trying to yell at us for the past 10 minutes but..." She was cut off by a light on her console beginning to glow. Picking up her headset, she slipped it on.

Gloval was surprised by the joyful expression that spread over Sammy's face. "Really?" She asked, Talking excitedly into the Mic. "I'll inform captain Gloval immediately. Thank you!"

"What's going on, miss porter?" Gloval asked, slightly hopeful.

"The Autonomous republic of Ontario has just offered refuge for the civilians. They said that we should fly to Toronto and offload them there."

Gloval nodded. "All crew, prepare for launch. We're going to Ontario." Then his face became puzzled. "What's Ontario anyways?"

Kim Young, who was from Canada, face faulted.

Captain Gloval just looked confused.

HR.

Ranma walked towards Vermillion's...er... The wild horse Briefing room, excited. The squadron was finally going to be allowed to launch for the first time since the Macross had landed. Ranma was eager to get back into combat after such a long break but was worried about what was going on.

Turning into the briefing room, he noticed that the entire squadron was already there. He had been delayed by the necessity of grabbing the mission orders. Walking up to the podium at the front of the room, he opened the orders sheet and read. Closing it up again, he began to talk.

"Alright. We've got escort duty for the ship today. Apparently, the Captain has found us a place to drop off the civilians and we're going to make sure that the drop off is un-interrupted. It'll probably be a peaceful flight, since the Zentraedi haven't entered the earth's atmosphere since the first attack on Macross island. Alright, suit up and move out. Since this is our first mission in a long wile, I'll say this once. Be careful out there."

The squadron began to cheer. They were finally back on the flight line. The cheering subsided as Ranma glared at them. "Let's get going."

Embarrassed, the five other pilots walked out of the briefing room.

HR.

The Wild Horse squadron launched off of the flight deck of the SDF-1 and began flying a holding pattern over the floating fortress. As the ship lifted out of the water, Ranma's chi radar picked up a massive power spike coming from the east. Since it quickly subsided, he just ignored it.

The SDF-1 had successfully pulled itself out of the ocean and now floated about 100 meters above it. Turning towards North America, it began to move at it's usual slow speed, the wild horses keeping position with one on each side and two flying above it.

A couple of hours into the flight, Ranma picked up several chi signatures heading rapidly towards the ship and it's escorts. They didn't feel like Zentraedi battle pods... More like human fighter pilots. No reflex signature, just the chi.

"This is Wild Horse lead to the SDF-1. I've got several aircraft coming in on an intercept vector. They don't feel like Zentraedi. I think they're UEG planes."

HR.

Captain Gloval, aboard the SDF-1, frowned. 'What's the UEG doing?' He thought, before turning to the front of the bridge. "Miss Porter. Order Captain Saotome to hold his fire until further notice. Have Wild Horse surround the UEG aircraft when they come in range."

HR.

Ranma received the orders and relayed them to the squadron, which pealed out of they're guard positions around the SDF-1 and flew towards the UEG aircraft.

Ranma had been right. They were UEG F-22 fighters and they were headed to the SDF-1. The lead fighter sent a message on all radio frequencies. "This is UEG fighter squadron Blue 3. You are ordered to reverse course or exit the planet's atmosphere immediately. We will give you five minutes to comply and then open fire."

Captain Gloval scowled. 'They have to be kidding.' He had expected some action from the UEG but threatening to blast the SDF-1 out of the air? This was ridiculous.

Ranma had heard this announcement as well and his hand twitched towards his Veritech's weapons locks. He stopped himself as he remembered captain Gloval's orders and reluctantly put the hand back on his flight control stick.

Five minutes passed slowly and the UEG planes began to split out of formation. Their last transmission was, "You have been warned. We will now open fire."

HR.

The F-22 aircraft were not as heavily armed as a Veritech, however they were made for flight in earth's atmosphere as aposed to the Veritech's mostly space flight role. As a result, the F-22s were slightly more maneuverable than a standard Veritech. Also, the Wild Horse pilots had mostly flown in space and hardly put any flight time in on earth. Ranma was the only one who really knew how to handle a plane in atmosphere. As a result of this, Wild Horse squadron was having they're asses handed to them in the dogfight. They were just barely able to dodge the fire of the enemy aircraft but the F-22s easily danced out of the way of countering fire. The only casualty so far was one of Wild Horse 3's thrusters, but the enemy wasn't even scratched.

Eventually, Ranma managed to hit and destroy one of the enemy aircraft using his Chi enhanced maneuvering thrusters and his head laser turret. This show of strange new abilities by the lead Wild Horse aircraft disconcerted the UEG Pilots and caused them to make mistakes. Eventually, Max Sterling in Wild Horse 2 managed to shoot another one down and the SDF-1's squadron began making a come back. After another few minutes of intense flying, the remainder of the UEG forces were forced to retreat.

"This is Wild Horse lead. All enemies destroyed or routed. Permission to return to SDF-1? We're pretty tired out here."

Receiving Permission from Captain Gloval to return to base, Ranma and his squadron put down on the flight deck, to see Roy Fokker's skull squadron going out to take they're place.

"Good luck out there, Roy!" Ranma yelled, climbing out of his Veritech.

Roy grinned as he reached up to seal his own. "We're the skull, kid. We don't need luck."

Ranma felt a cold chill at these words but couldn't figure out why.

HR.

Ranma walked into the white dragon, slump shouldered. "So...hungry." He muttered, over acting slightly.

Minmei laughed. "Your normal coming right up Ranma. Hey, Brun. Can you get me a Ranma special?"

A voice echoed from in back. "Sure thing Miss Minmei."

Minmei groaned. "And for the last time, stop calling me that."

Ranma slumped at a table, sighing.

Minmei looked surprised. "What's the matter Ranma? You aren't your usual cheerful self."

"Nothin. Don't worry about it, Minmei." Ranma said, waiting for his food.

Minmei's voice became stern. "Now Ranma. I tell you what's wrong with me all the time."

Ranma growled. "I shot down a human pilot todayj, alright!"

Minmei blinked, surprised. "Human?"

"Yeah, they were UEG fighters. They took exception to us going to Toronto to drop off the civilians, and me 'n the squadron had to shoot them down."

Minmei didn't know what to say. "Ranma..." She had an idea. "You fight the Zentraedi and shoot them down all the time. What's so different about other humans?" She didn't particularly agree with this sentiment but didn't really want to say anything about it to Ranma, who had only done what he had to protect the ship.

"The Zentraedi are actively attacking us. If I didn't shoot them down, they'd shoot me down."

"So what's so different about those UEG planes?" Minmei said, just as brun walked in carrying a bowl full of Ramen and wearing a rather unusual expression.

"Here's the Ranma special, Miss Minmei. I was wondering if I could have the rest of today off with Reko and Kunda." Brun said, hopefully. "We have something to do."

Minmei nodded. "Sure thing Brun. Have fun." She took the plate of food as the Zentraedi spy walked out of the door and ran off to the civilian apartments.

Ranma seemed to have dropped his deep thoughts as soon as the food had arrived, although they still ticked away in the back of his brain. He had reluctantly acknowledged that Minmei had a point, but would have to think more about this later.

HR.

Reko, Brun and Kunda stood around a small pod, hidden in the back streets of Macross City, near one of the Zentraedi sized airlocks. Inside the pod, there was just barely enough room for three humanoid adults, between the sheer mass of 'Micronian Artifacts.' These artifacts mostly consisted of Minmei records, Minmei dolls, pictures of Ranma's female form, Random posters and a few copies of "Wild Horse 1."

"So are we ready to go?" Reko asked, tapping the side of the pod with his foot.

Kunda nodded. "Yep, we have all of the Micronian artifacts packed and the attack is set to happen in 3 hours."

Brun hadn't said much since he had returned from his shift at the dragon, but he spoke up now. "Is this really right? I mean..." He trailed off.

Reko and Kunda looked at him oddly. "Is what right?" Reko asked.

"Destroying the Macross. I mean all of these Micronians are really non combatants."

Kunda looked slightly troubled for a moment. "I think we've been around Micronians too long. I'm beginning to see your point."

Reko nodded. "This must be the corruption that the ancients warned us about."

The three Zentraedi went back to preparing they're escape pod, confident that they would be leaving the Macross later that day.

HR.

Shortly after finishing his meal, Ranma walked out of the white dragon and towards his quarters. He figured that he would turn in early and take Roy's first patrol tomorrow morning as payback for Roy's having to launch early today. Walking into his room, Ranma hung his RDF uniform on a hook and went to bed.

HR.

Roy Fokker had been flying with his squadron for about three hours now. It was getting a bit boring but being back in the air made it worth it. He had been getting as stir crazy as Ranma being on the ground for so long and rejoiced in being back in a Veritech. His musings were interrupted by a slight prickling at the back of his head, followed by a very definite hit on his chi sense.

"Damn. We were almost to Toronto, too." He muttered as he felt the Zentraedi approaching. "This is skull lead to squadron. We have company."

Rick hunter and the other members of the skull closed around Roy's Veritech, prepared for combat.

HR.

Captain Gloval cursed as he heard the transmission from Skull lead. "Commander Lang. Is that new Omni-directional barrier ready yet?"

Lang shook his head. "Sorry sir. We have all the equipment ready but without determining the proper frequency, we could cause an overload."

Gloval nodded. Until Commander Lang and his engineers were finished work on the new barrier, the SDF-1 was still reliant on it's fighter screen and the smaller, less effective Pinpoint Barriers.

HR.

The skull was fighting hard against the Zentraedi battle pods. There were a lot of the new, more humanoid, pods and almost twice as many of the older variety. They seemed not to be effected by the fact that they were in an atmosphere and were using they're new advantage for all it was worth.

Roy was currently locked in battle with the leader of the humanoid pods. He had seen this Zentraedi fighting Max sterling a while ago and admired the pilot's skill. Unfortunately, now this skill was turned on him, when he had a disadvantage.

HR.

Miriya smiled. She had finally found "Vermillion 2." This pilot was just as good as the one she had remembered fighting earlier. In fact, he seemed slightly better. She knew full well that the Micronian mecha had a disadvantage in atmosphere but didn't much care. A kill was a kill right?

Miriya's smile got larger as she scored a hit against "Vermillion 2," Causing it to veer wildly. "Good..." She thought.

Roy frantically struggled to right his damaged Veritech as alarms wailed in the cockpit. He could feel something digging into his rib cage painfully and was pretty sure he had sustained a fatal or near fatal injury but wanted to continue fighting.

"This is Skull Lead to macross." He said, his voice slightly weaker than usual. "Reinforcements requested."

HR.

The bridge of the SDF-1 went silent. The skull never asked for reinforcements. They were given them if the situation warranted it but never in the history of the squadron had captain Fokker asked for help during a battle. Captain Gloval was getting worried. "Call up Wild horse. I know they're tired but they're the second best squadron we have." Gloval ordered, sternly. As Sammy porter went to follow Gloval's order, any bridge crew members that didn't have anything to do at the moment looked worriedly at the front viewer.

HR.

Ranma tossed and turned in his sleep, small whimpering sounds escaping his mouth. He was having a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare. In his mind, images of cats, attacking, growling, hissing and spitting swirled. He bolted up in bed as he heard an insistent beeping sound. Noticing his intercom was blinking, he leaned out of his bed and pushed it. "Yeah?"

"Skull squadron's in trouble. Captain Gloval ordered you and your squadron to launch."

"Roy's in trouble? You do know that wild horse 3 is still in for repairs, right?" Ranma responded, groggily.

The reply came back immediately. "Captain Fokker requested assistance. Wild horse 3 is still flyable. Now get the squadron into the air."

Ranma bolted out of bed. If Roy had asked for the help, things must be serious. Throwing on his uniform, he ran out the door to wake up the rest of the squadron.

HR.

Roy noticed the Zentraedi battle pod that had hit him was now proceeding on to his wingmen. 'Probably thinks I'm dead.' He thought as he struggled to keep his damaged machine on a straight path. He was still in the air but his maneuverability was severely compromised and his missile system was disabled. He could also feel the disconcerting sensation of the wound in his stomach area dripping blood. His vision blurred and he shook his head violently. 'I will not pass out...' He thought, determined to stay in the fight.

HR.

Ranma, who had assembled the wild horse squadron in record time, launched off of the Macross's launch deck. Surveying the situation, one thing caught his notice. Roy was flying oddly and his Chi signature was getting weaker.

"Wild Horse Lead to Skull lead. Are you all right Roy?"

Roy's voice came through the radio, weak and slurred. "I'm aight kid... Just got a little beat up that's all."

Ranma blinked. He was right. "Roy, I can sense Chi a lot better than you. From what I'm getting, you're either very badly wounded or having your chi drained. Since Miss Hinako is nowhere near here, I gotta think it's the first one."

Roy responded. "Miss Who? I don't wanna know."

Ranma laughed but quickly returned to his serious tone. "Roy, return to base."

"No Kid. I'm fine. I'm tellin you."

Ranma gritted his teeth. "Roy, You're gunna go back to the macross or I'm gunna haul you there by the wing."

Roy sighed. 'How did the kid get to the level where he could threaten me?' He muttered, annoyed, before heading back to the SDF-1. "This is captain Fokker to Skull. Rick, you're in command. Bring them home in one piece."

As Roy flew towards the Macross, Ranma and the wild horses engaged the enemy, with the help of the remainder of Skull.

Max Sterling found the Zentraedi battle pod that he had let escape while in space about a month ago. The pilot's parting shot still troubled him. Deciding that he had to finish things up, he flew towards the enemy battle pod.

HR.

Miriya noticed that one of the Micronian Mecha was flying right at her. It looked somehow familiar although she couldn't place it's squadron markings. The paint job rung a bell somehow. Then she heard her radio crackle. "This is Max Sterling, Formerly Vermillion 2. Let's finish our little dogfight, shall we?"

Miriya hadn't caught some of that statement, the word "Dogfight" confused her slightly but she recognized the name. 'I thought I already shot down "Vermillion 2." Oh well, I suppose I'll have to fight the real thing now.'

Miriya's face bore a grin as she pushed her throttles forward and dove at the Micronian mecha.

HR.

The battle around the SDF-1 raged as it moved towards Toronto. It was almost there and its fighter squadrons were all out in force. Wild horse was leading the defense against the enemy battle pods, with Ranma going from one target to another, Ben Dixon launching missile barrages from a distance and Max Sterling in the dogfight of his life.

Every time he thought he had the enemy in his sights for a final attack, it would spin out of the way in a way that he hadn't seen coming. In addition to this, it kept getting behind him and almost shooting him down. He had carbon scoring on the outside of his left wing from where a laser had just barely missed and he was finding it harder and harder to evade attacks.

HR.

Miriya smiled as she came close to hitting the Micronian Mecha again. This was the best fight she had been in for a long time. She was being challenged. This was definitely Vermillion 2. Seeing a chance for a clean hit, she turned her pod 30 degrees to the left, swung in, and missed.

HR.

Max saw the perfect rear shot on his enemy. Smirking, he slammed his thumb down on the trigger of his gun pod and scored a direct hit. "Yeah! Finally got you." He said, excitedly into his Mic. The pod was still not destroyed, limping off the battle field and towards it's mother ship. Just as Max was about to hit the trigger to launch a missile to vaporize it, something stopped him. He was never sure why he let that battle pod go until much later.

About 5 minutes later, the SDF-1 arrived over Toronto's airspace. Most of the enemy pods had been blasted by this point and the squadrons were preparing to return to the ship. That's when Ranma's Chi radar went nuts.

"This is Wild Horse Lead to Macross. I think we still have a problem." Ranma said, as the overwhelming signal hit his chi senses.

"This is the Macross. Could you be more specific?" A rather annoyed Sammy porter came through the comm.

"I got a really big fold signal out here. Bigger than any I've ever seen." Ranma said, his voice tense.

HR.

On the bridge, Captain Gloval and the rest of the bridge crew gulped. "Commander Lang. Is that Omni-Directional Barrier ready yet?" Gloval barked, worried about the ship's safety.

"I think I have the frequency right. It could still be dangerous though. We should actually..." He was cut off by gloval's order.

"Activate it."

As Lang scrambled to comply, the SDF-1 went through it's transformation sequence for the second time since launch. The new barrier needed the Reflex reactor that normally powered the main cannon in order to work, and the Macross needed to be in battle mode in order to activate it.

A few seconds later, a greenish bubble of energy appeared, surrounding the Macross, which was now floating above the city of Toronto like some sort of gigantic statue.

"ODB Activated sir." Lang said, sighing in relief.

Gloval mirrored his sigh, reaching for his pipe before taking a glance at Sammy porter and pulling his hand back.

HR.

Ranma's only thought on seeing the SDF-1 in it's new state was, 'Holy shit.' His deep thoughts were interrupted at the arrival of the massive object that had made the massive fold signature Ranma had detected. Actually, It was several massive objects. Three Zentraedi battle cruisers had folded into the upper atmosphere and were now descending to the Macross's level, launching fighters all the while.

HR.

Roy Fokker was in a lot of pain. He was currently lying on a bed in the med Lab, a doctor looking over the wounds on his chest and stomach.

"Captain Fokker, You're lucky to be alive. If you were out there any longer..." The doctor trailed off as he took a needle out of a drawer, filling it with something. "This could hurt a bit."

Roy's last thought before the needle was injected and the general anesthetic took effect was, 'Damn kid. I don't care if you saved my life. You're still dead when I get outta here.'

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda were sitting in their escape pod. they had felt it picked up as one of the battle pods pierced the lines of the Macross' defenses and grabbed it an hour earlier and they were now feeling it sway back and forth as it was being carried somewhere by soldiers.

"Do you think we made it back?" Reko questioned, from his seat at the front of the pod.

"Micronian mecha don't swing things when they carry them. I'd have to assume that the pod is being carried by Zentraedi or Meltraedi." Kunda said, analytically.

Brun hadn't spoken since they had been picked up, still thinking about the Macross.

The pod came to an abrupt halt as the three micronized Zentraedi spies felt a shuddering bump.

The hatch on the top of the pod opened and they were confronted by the overly large face of their commander, Bretai. "Well, have you brought back intelligence on the Micronians?" Bretai asked, in his booming voice.

The three Zentraedi spies spent the next ten minutes answering questions.

HR.

Ranma swung his Veritech around, in Battleoid mode, and brought his foot down on the left wing of a Zentraedi Battle pod. The pod spun out of control, slamming into one of its allies. This kind of thing had been going on for the last few minutes, as Ranma and the rest of Wild Horse had used up all their ammo on the previous enemy. Max had joined Ranma in the Melee combat while Ben returned to the ship to be re-armed, since he had been trained in some martial arts in civilian life. Ranma still had a single long range weapon, his laser cannon, which he used to full effect. Unfortunately, using the cannon so much was depleting his Reflex and Chi reserves severely.

The Zentraedi were getting the worst of the fighter war, however their battle ships were pounding the Macross heavily. The ODB seemed to be able to deflect the attacks, however with it active the Macross couldn't fire it's main guns.

HR.

On the bridge, a console beeped urgently. Looking over, Commander Lang's eyes widened. "No." He breathed, rushing to the station.

Captain Gloval jerked his head around to face the scientist. "What's happening."

Lang answered, in a shaky voice, "The frequencies programmed into the ODB were incorrect. It's going to overload in 5 minutes."

Gloval's eyes widened. "What will happen if it does?"

Lang shrugged. "I don't know. I'm guessing that it would cause an explosion roughly equivalent to a multi-megaton nuclear warhead. The worst part is, we can't shut it down."

Gloval paled. "Can we get out of range of the city?"

Commander Hayes shook her head. "Our best speed would get us to minimum safe distance of that kind of blast in about 10 minutes."

Gloval gritted his teeth. He couldn't figure out any way to stop the destruction of the city and the ship could be destroyed as well. "Order our squadrons to fly to Minimum safe distance. At least they can get out."

Sammy porter grimly relayed the order.

HR.

Ranma received a signal from the Macross. 'What? It's going to overload?' Hitting his comm, he ordered Wild horse to get out.

As the squadron flew out of range of the explosion, Ranma noticed that Ben Dixon was missing. "Wild Horse lead to 3, where are you?"

Ben's voice came over the radio. "This is three. My damaged thruster just failed again... I can't get the speed to get out of range."

Ranma gritted his teeth and searched the Radar for his wingman. Ben had just launched from the Macross when the orders from command had come in, and was still very close. Ordering the rest of Wild Horse to stay in formation, Ranma flew back to Ben.

Grabbing a hold of Ben's Veritech, he tried to toe it behind him. He was just a bit too slow.

HR.

A few minutes later, The SDF-1's Omni-Directional Barrier overloaded, sending immense quantities of energy out from the center and destroying all of the nearby Zentraedi warships. Fortunately, the ship itself was at the exact center of the energy release and was not hit by any of it. Unfortunately, the city of Toronto, and most of the rest of Ontario, was in the blast radius. The last thing the 4 million residents of the city saw was an intense flash of light before everything went white.

HR.

As Ranma saw the wave of energy bairing down on him and Ben, he frantically tried to think of some way to avoid being obliterated. Boosting his engines wouldn't work, he already was. He couldn't fly over or under the wave, it was a solid sphere. Then he remembered something...

/Flashback./

Ranma was dreaming. Not about Akane and a Picnic or about getting cured of his curse like he usually did. No. This was a very strange dream. He was floating in space, a white bubble surrounding him. He could tell that he was going very fast and that the bubble around him seemed to be made of Pure Reflex energy. Reaching out to try and touch it, His hand came in contact and he jerked it away. "I thought you couldn't get hurt in dreams." He complained as he cradled his burnt hand.

Suddenly, his eyes widened. He saw the entirety of the sphere for what it was. It was a...

/End Flashback./

"Space fold field!" Ranma exclaimed, suddenly realizing what that strange dream had been about. Closing his eyes and visualizing the inside of the SDF-1's launch bay, He attempted to reconstruct what he had seen in the dream using his chi and succeeded.

Ranma and Ben disappeared just as the wave reached their position, reappearing in a clear space in the Macross' launch bay.

Ranma sighed in relief and then collapsed from the amount of chi he had used up in his last ditch plan.

HR.

Ryoga Hibiki ran over to the two Veritechs that had just appeared in the center of the launch bay. Seeing that they both bore the unit flash of the Wild Horse squadron, he popped the canopy of the most damaged looking one. Ben Dixon staggered out.

"What happened?" Ryoga asked, looking at the two planes.

"I couldn't get out in time and captain Saotome came back to get me. The energy wave was about to hit and then..." Ben trailed off, confused.

Ryoga walked over to the cockpit of the other Veritech to see Ranma slumped forward in the seat. When he used his chi sense on Ranma, Ryoga gasped. "He's almost out of chi." He muttered as he picked up the unconscious captain.

HR.

Roy Fokker lay in one of the med lab's hospital beds, his lower chest and stomach wrapped in bandages. He still felt groggy from the anesthetics and pain meds but wanted to get out. His train of thought on this subject was derailed as he saw someone else being wheeled into the room. Recognizing a black pigtail that was hanging over the side of the stretcher, he sat upright, wincing in pain. "Kid?"

Ranma was put in next to Roy, who glanced over to see what was wrong with him. He didn't seem to have any injuries. All that was visible was an expression of concentration frozen on his face.

A few hours later, Roy was disturbed by a rustling sound from the bed next to him. "Hmm?" He asked as he turned his head.

"What hit me?" Ranma asked, flatly.

Roy grinned. "You got me kid. You've been out for the last few hours."

Ranma then remembered something. "Is Ben alright?"

Roy blinked. "I...think so. Why wouldn't he be?" His question wasn't answered as Ranma had already fallen back to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	11. Chapter 11, IT'S OVER 9000!

Prepare yourself for the lamest love story in the history of fanfic, and a half decent battle, considering what I was writing at the time.

All this and more on today's episode of Buck Roge... I mean RDF Life. Enjoy!

PS: I am quite aware that Minmei's singing is considered weapons grade crap, especially in the Harmony gold version where she could only sing two songs. Having said this, in order to follow Robotech's plot in this way, and because I did NOT know this at the time of writing, do me a favor and pretend she's half decent? It's kinda like how we pretend that Priss's singing was actually good enough to get her a gig in BGC, even though she doesn't sound that great in the dub.

ANYHOW, On with the show!

Chapter 11, Boarding Action.

Roy had been lying in the med lab for the past 20 hours, with Ranma asleep next to him. He still didn't know what was wrong with the kid and the doctors hadn't come to tell him what was wrong with him either. At that moment, his thoughts were interrupted by one of the doctors, walking in with a clipboard.

"Captain Fokker, Captain Saotome?" He asked, looking at Roy and Ranma's beds.

Roy nodded but Ranma didn't move.

"Captain Saotome?" The doctor asked, raising his voice. Ranma kept right on snoring.

Sighing, Roy picked up a glass of water from next to his bed. Dipping his finger in, he determined that it was still cold. As the doctor looked on, confused, Roy chucked the contents of the glass at Ranma, who woke up sputtering.

"What did you do THAT for!" Ranma complained, wiping the wet hair out of her eyes.

Roy shrugged. "Sorry kid, had to wake you up."

The doctor just looked confused before clearing his throat. "Well, I have your reports here. Captain Saotome was only suffering from extreme fatigue and may return to duty as soon as he...er... she? Is ready."

Ranma grinned. "Thanks doc." She said, swinging her legs over the side of the hospital bed. Getting up, she only swayed a little bit before regaining her balance.

The doctor continued. "Captain Fokker, your injuries are slightly more serious. I'm afraid that when your Veritech got hit a piece of debris pierced your stomach, going upwards. It passed through one corner of the stomach and into your left lung. We have managed to repair the damage, however it will take several months for it to completely heal. Until it does, you are off the flight roster by Commander Lang's orders."

Roy cursed softly. "Damn... I can't be off for that long. What about the Skull?"

Ranma, who had not yet left, spoke up. "They'll probably assign a new CO until you get out. I could put someone's name in for you if you want."

Roy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Rick hunter." He responded, flatly.

Ranma nodded. "A pretty good pilot, I'll go talk to captain Gloval. See you later Roy."

Roy nodded as Ranma walked out of the med lab, tightening the strings in her uniform on the way.

HR.

Rick hunter and the rest of skull were sitting at a table in the white dragon, looking worried. They had heard about their CO being stuck in the med lab and hoped he was alright. Minmei was sitting at the table next to Rick. Ever since Reko, Brun and Kunda had disappeared somewhere (Ryoga said that they had probably gotten lost,) she had been running the Dragon by herself. Fortunately the Skull pilots were the only customers around at the moment.

"I'm sure Captain Fokker will be alright." Minmei said, trying to cheer up the depressed pilots around the table.

Rick sighed. "I don't know. The way Captain Saotome was talking over the radio...it sounded serious."

Just as Rick had mentioned her name, Ranma walked into the dragon, still in female form.

"Ranma!" Minmei called.

"Hey Minmei." Ranma said, waving at the waitress. Then, she caught sight of the entire Skull squadron sitting at the table with her. "Wow, talk about a lucky break."

Rick blinked. "What do you mean, Captain?"

Ranma shrugged. "Roy asked me to talk to you guys."

The squadron perked up. "Is He alright?" Five questions came at once.

"He's fine. He's in the med lab recuperating right now." Ranma said, smiling at the relieved looks on the pilots' faces. "He got pretty banged up out there and the docs say he can't fly for a couple months. He asked me to recommend Rick as a replacement CO for Skull. Any objections?"

The squadron members looked at each other and shrugged. Rick spoke up next. "Me?"

Ranma grinned. "You're a pretty good pilot, hunter. Unless you don't want the squadron, Gloval will probably approve my suggestion. I figured I'd check with you guys first though."

"Oh, that's great Rick!" Minmei said, hugging her boyfriend. Rick blushed, as everyone else in the squadron nodded their agreement..

Ranma grinned. "Hunter, you're one lucky man." This sounded rather odd coming from Ranma's female voice and only got the rest laughing at the new soon to be squadron leader.

HR..

Ranma walked into Captain Gloval's ready room, surprised at seeing the older man holding his head and shaking it. "Sir?" She asked, thinking that she might want to come back later.

Gloval looked up. "Ah, Captain Saotome, what can I do for you?"

Ranma shrugged and sat down at a chair across the desk from Gloval. "Well sir, Captain Fokker got taken off the flight line by Commander Lang for medical reasons and I was wondering..."

Gloval interrupted. "You want to suggest someone as his replacement."

Ranma blinked. "Um... yeah. Roy asked me to recommend Rick hunter."

Captain Gloval raised an eyebrow. "Hunter? I was sure that you wanted to assign one of your pilots."

Ranma laughed. "No, I ain't lettin the pilots I spent six months training go and join another squadron unless I have to."

Gloval nodded at that comment. "I see. So you feel that Lt. Hunter is qualified then?"

"Yeah, He's a good pilot and Roy seems to think that he can do it. Roy suggested me for command after all." Ranma's smirk was very evident.

Gloval shrugged. "Suggestion approved. Tell Mr. Hunter of his promotion and assignment next time you see him."

Ranma nodded. "Thank you sir. Um, this is none of my business but... What had you shaking your head when I walked in?"

Gloval sighed. "It is none of your business Captain Saotome...but I'll tell you anyway. I understand that you and Commander Hayes have... something between you and this is relevant to you as well I suppose."

Ranma blushed slightly at that and scratched the back of her head. "Erm..."

Gloval continued. "The UEG wants Commander Hayes assigned to the grand cannon project in the arctic."

Ranma blinked. "What?"

"That's what I said. It was apparently her father's idea. I said we needed her here, but they didn't seem to want to listen to me." Gloval explained.

Ranma's mind was going in circles. 'Lisa's going to the arctic? No way.' Then she spoke up. "Well, the UEG hasn't really done anything but get in our way so far, and we do need Lisa aboard the ship. Why not just take off without offloading her?"

Gloval started laughing. "Captain Saotome, even as a girl you have more balls than most of the admirals in the UEG military."

Ranma looked confused. "Uh... Thanks?"

Gloval just shook his head again. "Dismissed Captain, I just might follow through on your suggestion."

HR.

Ranma had found some hot water and reverted to normal form. Walking into the building that housed the ship's officers' quarters, he found Lisa's apartment number and walked into the elevator.

HR.

Lisa Hayes sat on her bed, thinking. Her father had arranged for her to stay on earth when the SDF-1 launched. This was not a good thing in her opinion. She was needed onboard, and she didn't want to leave her commander, crew... and Ranma. As if the thought had summoned it, a knock came at Lisa's door. Getting up, she opened it.

"Hey Lisa." Ranma said, smiling.

Lisa smiled back. "Hi Ranma. What's up?"

He shrugged. "Well, Rick's got command of Skull and I figure they're gunna celebrate. I thought you might want to come."

Lisa blinked. "Rick's in command of skull? since when?"

Ranma sighed. "Roy got hurt pretty bad last mission. He'll be alright, but he can't fly for the next couple months. He asked me to suggest Rick and Captain Gloval agreed."

Lisa's smile got wider. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll have to come and help him celebrate his command."

The couple walked off down the hall, holding hands. Lisa banished the thoughts of her father and Grand Cannon base from her mind.

HR.

As it turned out, Rick did have one hell of a party for his promotion. All of skull joined in, including Roy who had been released from the hospital to light duty. As for the issue of Lisa and the Arctic base, Captain Gloval just ordered the Macross to depart the atmosphere and 'Forgot' to offload her. Admiral Hayes was not amused but couldn't really do much about it.

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda stood in a hall, in front of a crowd of twenty or thirty other Zentraedi. Ever since they had been demicronized they had been telling other Zentraedi about what it was like inside the SDF-1. There was now quite a group, on their ship and dispersed through the fleet, that had joined the "Macross Fan Club." Very few Zentraedi actually knew what a "Fan Club" was, but they did like the singing of Minmei and Ranma. "Wild Horse 1" Had gone over very well as well, even if some of the concepts in the film didn't make much sense to some of them.

Brun started speaking. "This meeting of the Macross Fan Club will commence."

A person at the front spoke up. "We've heard all of your stories about Miss Minmei and the other micronians. When do we get to see the Macross?"

Nods of agreement ran through the room and the people from other ships transmitted cheers of agreement.

Reko spoke up. "Minrai, who works in the micronization facility, says that he can sneak us in some time next mega cycle. From there, we can use battle pods to get to the Macross and seek "Asylum." That's like protection. The Micronians will surely let us stay."

The room full of Zentraedi began to cheer and chant, raising their hands to the gigantic pictures of Minmei, Ranma's Female half and Ranma himself that were put up on the walls.

HR.

Miriya Parina was preparing for the toughest mission she had ever undertaken. The fact that she had still not been able to learn much of the Micronian language wouldn't stop her. She was going to kill "Vermillion 2." for humiliating her, no matter what the cost. Looking at the rather odd scrap of red fabric in her hand, she shook her head. 'It's hard to believe Micronians are small enough to ware this as clothing.' she thought, pocketing it as she walked to the micronization chamber. The Zentraedi had pulled off a spying mission so why couldn't the, inherently superior, Meltraedi do the same thing?

HR.

Rick Hunter sat nervously in his Veritech's cockpit as he prepared for Skull's first patrol since the battle at Toronto. It had only been a few hours since the SDF-1 had regained orbit and it had started heading away from earth. Gulping, Rick closed his canopy and taxied towards the catapults.

As Skull squadron launched off the deck of the Macross, Rick spoke through his radio. "Alright. Take standard patrol formation. Close in for the gap left by the captain...er... I mean Roy." he was finding it hard to get used to the fact that he was now a captain.

The squadron acknowledged and split into patrol formation. About half an hour later, the first Zentraedi attack since the Macross had come back to space began.

For the most part, the force was composed of normal battle pods. There were a few of the newer and harder to kill pods but not enough to call Wild Horse out over. Rick was flying better than ever. Apparently the knowledge that he was responsible for the squadron motivated him to new heights. He was nowhere near as good as Roy or even Max but it didn't really matter. He was holding his own.

There was something strange about this attack. The battle pods were flying in a standard smash and run formation accept for one or two of the newer ones that seemed intent on breaking through to the Macross. Rick let them through on the way in and a few minutes later, the squadron came in on them and destroyed them. Unfortunately, they had already done their job.

HR.

Miriya Parina climbed out of her Pod, grumbling about bumpy rides and incompetent soldiers. She was inside the Micronian Battle Fortress. wearing a red Chinese dress that had been copied off of one of the contestants in the Miss Macross Pageant, she went "Vermillion 2" hunting.

She began this hunt by walking down the streets of Macross city, randomly asking people where the pilots were. This was rather unusual, but for the people of Macross, who's star pilot was also one of the stars of a beauty contest, they took it in stride.

Walking up to one man, who was wearing some sort of Uniform, Miriya tapped him on the shoulder. "Scuse sir. Where pilots of Mecha at?" Inwardly, she cursed her inability to pick up the Micronian language. She had only been studying it for about two weeks, but it was annoying to speak so stiltedly.

HR.

Ranma shivered slightly at the voice of the woman that had just tapped him on the shoulder. She sounded so much like Shampoo. Turning, he noted that her hair was green as aposed to Shampoo's purple and it wasn't as long. "Erm, the pilots? Well, I'm one and we usually hang out at the Dragon or in the military section. That's usually off limits to civilians though."

Miriya nodded. "Thank much. You take Miriya to Dragon?"

Ranma shrugged. "Well, I got nothin else to do. I guess so. Hey, just one question, are you by any chance a Chinese Amazon who's going there to kill or marry any of the pilots?" He finished with a laugh.

Miriya blinked. "Marry? What that? Miriya just want see pilots."

Ranma noted that the woman had not seemed to bat an eye at the "Kill" part of his question but shrugged. "Alright. I'll take you to the dragon. C'mon."

HR.

Ranma and Miriya walked into the white dragon to see Rick and Roy sitting at a table. Ben was walking over with some food that he'd just gotten from Minmei.

"So which pilot are you lookin for?" Ranma questioned, looking at the woman who he assumed was a Chinese Amazon.

"I look for Vermillion 2." She said, a strange note of hostility in her voice.

Ranma seemed not to notice the hostility. "Oh, You mean Max Sterling? He's Wild Horse 2 now and I don't think he's around right now. He mentioned something about a Video Arcade over in the center of town. You might want to look for him there."

Miriya nodded, said "Thank you." and turned to leave.

"Hey, You wanna have lunch first?" Ranma asked. "You did come to the dragon after all."

Miriya shook her head and walked out.

Ranma just shrugged before walking over to the table with Rick, Roy and Ben at it. "Hey guys. What's up?"

Rick shrugged. "A whole lot of nothing captain...er... Ranma."

"Still not used to that rank badge, eh Rick?" Ranma asked, chuckling.

Rick shrugged. "I'll get used to it. Flying lead in skull is fun though."

Roy spoke up. "Yeah it is, especially if you don't got an annoying little brother on your wing."

Rick laughed. "Thanks Roy. I'll remember that."

"So, how's light duty treatin you Roy?" Ranma asked, accepting a special from Minmei that he hadn't even ordered and automatically starting to chow down.

"It's pretty good so far, just a bit boring." Roy responded. "I got posted to the flight deck. I'm on engineer Hibiki's team. The only problem is that I spend more time pointing the right way to a plane than working."

Ranma started laughing. "Good ol' Ryoga, couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag."

Ranma's laughter was cut short by a tap on the shoulder. "What was that, Ranma?"

Looking up, Ranma saw a familiar yellow and black uniform. "Hey Buddy. I was just talkin about you. Wander in from the kitchen again?"

Ryoga growled. "Yes."

Everyone started laughing.

HR.

Miriya walked into the "Video Arcade" and looked around. The place was a large room filled with some sort of consoles. People were standing at the consoles, frantically pressing buttons. It reminded Miriya of a combat simulation room. The group of what appeared to be Flight Simulators at the back of the room supported this theory.

"Max Sterling?" Miriya called out, looking around the room. She repeated her call. "Max Sterling. I want challenge you!"

Max looked up from his game console to see a green haired woman looking around and yelling that she wanted to challenge him. Blinking, he shut off the EVA street fighter knock off that he had been playing and walked over to the woman. "I'm Max Sterling. You wanted to challenge me to a game?"

Miriya blinked. "Game?" She asked, questioningly.

"Yeah, that's what you wanted to challenge me to right?"

Miriya thought for a moment. She couldn't just attack Max here. There were too many other people around. She could however, use this opportunity to humble him a bit. "Yes, that what I want. I defeat you in flight training game."

Max blinked at this rather creative use of Japanese but caught the idea. "You want to play Ace Combat 6 against me then?"

Miriya nodded and grinned evilly. "I show you real warrior."

HR.

Miriya slammed her hands down on the console of the flight simulator as the words "Critical Hit" flashed on the left side of her HUD. Growling, she climbed out of the simulated cockpit and glared at Max. "You win." She reluctantly admitted.

Max grinned. "That's what you get for challenging a fighter pilot to a dogfight." He liked this girl. She took the game so seriously and was a really good player. She was really cute and that odd pidgin Japanese was starting to sound nice to him. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was just something about her.

"Well, I challenge to other game?" Miriya asked. She was feeling anger at being beaten by this Micronian as well as shame for the same reason. For some reason, there was something else. It reminded her of the feeling she got after a successful mission... but she had been defeated. This did not make sense. She hoped it would when she finally wiped the smile off of that damned Micronian's face.

HR.

Miriya cursed again as her final mecha on the screen blew up.

"I told you not to use the GMs in Super Robot Wars." Max laughed, seeing the scowl on Miriya's face.

"Gundam too powerful. That not fair." Miriya groused, scowling.

Max just smirked, before glancing down at his watch. "Aw man, I let the time get away from me. Captain Saotome isn't gunna be happy if I'm late reporting. I have to go. Oh, can I meet you again some time? Like maybe tomorrow?"

Miriya nodded. "We meet at White Dragon, yes?"

Max nodded. "Great. Thanks. See you there!" He then ran out of the arcade towards the Wild Horse briefing room.

Behind him, Miriya smiled. 'I will get you Max Sterling, you just wait.' A gleam of metal was visible for a second in her hand before she slipped the small knife into her sleeve.

HR.

As Max flew his Veritech, he couldn't get thoughts of the strange girl out of his mind. He didn't know why but it seemed like she was familiar. Not her looks but her voice. Something tickled at the back of his mind. He was interrupted in his deep thinking by Ben, coming over his comm.

"So Max, Did you see the Mystery girl?" His voice had evidence of a grin in it.

Max blinked. "Mystery girl? Oh, you mean the girl I met at the arcade. Hey, how do you know about her?"

Ben responded. "She came into the dragon looking for you. You should really thank Captain Saotome. He rerouted her to you."

Ranma's voice cut in on the line. "Cut the chatter, Dixon. What Max does on his free time is none of our business, although I'd like to know what was up with that girl too."

Max sighed. "She just wanted to challenge me to a few video games, that's all. I am meeting her at the dragon tomorrow though."

Ben gave an appreciative whistle. Ranma and Max winced as the whistle had been echoed straight into they're ears. "That girl looked pretty good, Max. I think you're a lucky guy."

Ranma butted in before Max had to respond to that one. "I said cut the chatter Ben."

Ben sighed and went back to the monotony of patrol.

HR.

Aboard a ship in the Zentraedi fleet, another meeting of the "Macross Fan Club" was going on. Brun, Reko and Kunda were once again standing at the front of the large room, the posters still on the walls.

Reko spoke up. "Minrai has confirmed that he CAN get us into the micronization chamber. His only condition is that we take him with us."

Everyone cheered at this.

Brun was next. "We will leave the next time an attack is launched against the Macross. The eighth squadron's Mecha will be loaded up with Micronized Zentraedi and we will attempt to make it to the Macross."

The crowd cheered more loudly.

Kunda finished the speech. "We will probably lose a few mecha in the flight over to the Macross so only the people who are absolutely sure that they want to attempt this mission should come. We will prepare for the mission as soon as the next attack time is announced."

The cheering continued.

Reko muttered to the other two at the front. "Do you think we'll make it?"

Kunda shrugged. "We have to try. Miss Minmei is over there."

Brun just nodded.

HR.

As Ranma walked into the dragon the next day, he noticed Minmei looking very happy at the cash register. "Hey Minmei." he said. "What's up?"

Minmei grinned. "Great news Ranma, Captain Gloval called me up to his ready room earlier. Apparently he wants me to do a concert tomorrow to cheer everyone up."

"A concert?" Ranma asked. "Live at the big hall or somethin?"

Minmei nodded. "Yeah. You are going to come right?"

Ranma thought for a minute. "When is it exactly?"

Minmei checked a small piece of paper in her hand. "7:30."

Ranma groaned. "Sorry Minmei. Me 'n Wild horse are on flight duty then." as Minmei looked sad, he continued. "At least you know Rick'll be there."

Minmei cheered up. "Yeah, you're right. You'll tune me in on your radio right?"

Ranma grinned. "Sure thing."

Just then, Max walked into the restaurant. "Hi Captain, Minmei." He said, walking over to a corner table and sitting.

"Hi Max." Minmei said. "What can I get you?"

Max shook his head. "I'm waiting for someone. I probably won't order until she gets here."

Ranma raized an eyebrow. "She, eh? Something you should be telling your CO?"

Max blushed. "No sir, not that I know of."

Ranma just laughed. Now he knew why Nabiki had kept teasing him and Akane... It was fun.

Ranma decided to ease up on Max and turned to Minmei to order his usual. He didn't have to as it was set on a table already. "Minmei, you know me WAY too well, or at least my eating habits."

'Which is pretty well his whole life.' Minmei thought, giggling slightly.

As Ranma sat eating, that Amazon from the day before walked into the Dragon. Sure enough, she walked over to Max's table and sat down with him. Ranma didn't bother to listen in to their conversation. Their body language said it all. Max really liked the woman and she seemed to like him, as well. The only problem was that she seemed not to want to admit it. Judging by her tensed posture, she looked like she was either going to fight or flee. Shrugging, Ranma just continued eating.

HR.

Max ordered his food, having just heard Minmei's exciting news. The girl also ordered. Strangely, she just requested exactly what he had.

Picking at his food, Max started the conversation. "So, what's your name anyway? I never thought to ask."

"I Miriya. Best fighter of my... people." She said, trailing before she accidentally said 'Of the Meltraedi.'

"Your people?" Max asked, curiously. "Where are you from?"

Miriya thought frantically. What had that man yesterday said, "I from China. I Amazon."

Max blinked. "And here I thought the Captain's Chinese Amazon stories were just jokes." He said, unsure of how to react.

The two bantered back and forth, Max talking about his life on the Macross and Miriya telling a slightly 'Modified' version of her own life story.

Max was having a great time. This girl was great. She wasn't much for conversation but he could tell that under the bad grammar she had a very intelligent mind. She was also, as he had thought many times before, very cute and her smile did something to him that he couldn't put his finger on.

Miriya didn't know what she was feeling. It was a lot like the feeling of Victory in battle... only without the battle. She knew there was a word for this in Micronian. It wasn't happiness, but what was it?

The two talked for the next little while before they had finally finished dinner. Remembering Minmei's comments earlier, Max asked Miriya if she would come to the concert tomorrow with him. Miriya accepted.

Later, Miriya wondered why she hadn't killed Max at the restaurant. She managed to reason out that there were still too many witnesses, not even realizing that she was trying to come up with reasons to let him live.

HR.

Ranma Saotome sat in the Wild Horse briefing room, doing the one thing that he hated about being a squadron leader. That is, Paper work. He only had to do this once or twice a month but to the man who fell asleep in GYM class because it was too boring, this was a good test of self-control.

Ranma's torture was interrupted by Max Sterling walking in the door. Putting down a report on Wild Horse 4's flight performance, Ranma sighed. "Hey Max. You've saved me from paper work for a while. What can I do for you?"

Max grinned as he sat down at his normal place. "I was wondering if I could ask a favor, Captain."

Ranma quirked an eyebrow. "What is it, Max?"

Max continued. "I was wondering if I could get leave for the concert tonight. I kinda forgot we had patrol duty and asked someone out on a date." His blush was very evident.

"A date? That's not really an incredible reason to ask for leave but..." Ranma smirked. "Sure. Why not? You never ask for leave. You've got it coming."

Max smiled thankfully. "Thanks Captain."

Ranma nodded as Max walked out of the room. Then, in a burst of sudden good humor, he shouted "Good Luck Sterling!"

Max walked down the hall, laughing.

HR.

The Zentraedi of the "Macross Fan Club" were excited. The time of the next attack had just been announced and they were all being micronized. They knew that they would only have to wait a few more hours. Only a few more hours until they could see the Macross, Lin Minmei and Ranma Saotome.

Reko, Brun and Kunda were the most excited of all. Maybe Miss Minmei would let them work at the restaurant again. That had been very enjoyable.

HR.

Warlord Kyron plotted. He had been the one responsible for most of the attacks against the Micronian Battle Fortress up to this point and this one was to be his last chance. He had to succeed this time. He had decided to go with overwhelming force and to go along with his troops in order to assure success. One way or another, this raid would succeed. It was really too bad that the seeds of this defeat were already planted in the middle of his forces.

HR.

Ranma Saotome, Ben Dixon and a pilot from blue by the name of Joe Fenton were about to launch for a four hour patrol. When Ranma had asked for a temporary replacement for Max, half a dozen pilots from the smaller squadrons had jumped at the chance to fly with the Wild Horses.

Taxiing towards the catapult, Ranma thought about the concert. He just hoped Max had a good time with his date. Ranma had to restrain a snicker at a mental image of the green haired Amazon chasing Max around yelling "Airen!" 'I don't know if he's lucky or unlucky...' were Ranma's thoughts as his Veritech flew off the flight deck.

HR.

Max knew full well, he was lucky. Miriya was still wearing the red dress from a few days ago or a very good copy. She was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.

"So, do you want to get going?" Max asked, offering his hand to Miriya at the Dragon. Minmei had taken off about 20 minutes earlier saying something about getting prepared.

Miriya grabbed Max's hand. "Yes, Miriya ready. Where we go?"

Max blinked. "The big hall, we're going to hear Minmei sing. Remember?"

Miriya nodded and the two walked off towards the center of town.

HR.

Minmei looked nervously out of the curtain back stage at the hall. It hadn't seemed this bad at the pageant. Maybe that was because of Ranma's constant jokes. This time, she was alone in front of all these people. Gulping, she walked out onto the stage to thunderous applause.

Walking up to the Mic, Minmei began to speak. "Hi. Welcome to the first Minmei concert. I'm Minmei and I'm going to be singing a collection of the songs from my first CD. I would be singing some from the second one except that Captain Saotome went and ran off to do a patrol."

The audience laughed.

Minmei continued. "But first, one for a very special guy. Rick, you out there?"

Rick hunter waved from his position next to Roy and the Skull. Yelling, "Right here!"

"Well then." Minmei continued. "This is for you." She then launched into a rendition of a song that she had specially written for this concert.

HR.

Miriya listened to the Micronian girl singing, confused. This didn't seem to have any purpose at all. She had heard the transmissions from the Miss Macross contest of course, but she had just assumed that there was some purpose to them. Now that she was listening to this singing live, the only thing she felt was confusion and some sort of strange happiness. Not too dissimilar to the feeling that she got when looking at Max Sterling, in fact.

Speaking of Max, he was tapping his foot. "Good music, huh?" He asked, looking over at Miriya.

"Yes. Music sound good." Miriya responded, truthfully.

HR.

Ranma sat in his Veritech, tapping his foot on his rudder peddles. This had the rather odd effect of making his plane bank from left to right in time with Minmei's singing. Since it wasn't hurting anything, he didn't bother stopping. "Pretty good, eh Ben?" Ranma said, over the comm.

"Yeah Captain. Still think your singing is just as good, though." Ben Dixon said, chuckling. "I still say you should have stayed on the ground tonight and sang."

"Shut up Ben." Ranma growled.

Then the new guy spoke up. "Flying in Wild Horse sure is interesting."

The two other pilots laughed. "Just you wait until this patrol gets old. It's just as boring as blue, I assure you." Ranma said.

Just as he finished saying that, Ranma's chi sense flared. "I shouldn'ta said that. OK flight, prepare for hostiles."

"Aw Man." Ben complained. "And I was getting into the music, too."

Lt. Fenton looked confused. "How do you know we're going to get hostiles?" his question was quickly answered as several Zentraedi battle cruisers came out of fold space, launching fighters.

"That good enough for you?" Ranma asked, arming his missiles and selecting targets.

"Yeah, that's good enough." Fenton responded, doing the same.

"Ben, keep the rookie safe. I'm going in after the leaders."

"Yes sir, captain!" Ben Dixon responded, keeping close to Fenton.

"I resent that rookie remark." Fenton complained, being ignored by the two other pilots.

HR.

Captain Gloval, on the bridge of the Macross, was chuckling at Pilot chatter when he heard Ranma's comment about incoming enemies. "Great. Just what we don't need right now."

Lisa Hayes nodded in agreement. "Should we call the other squadrons?"

Gloval shook his head. "The pilots are enjoying the concert and that's Wild Horse out there. We don't need to worry right now. We should switch to battle mode though."

Lang, sitting at the back of the bridge, took this as an order and began preparing the ship for the transformation. "We're ready sir." He said,

Gloval nodded and the ship shook slightly as it switched modes. "Switch Complete sir, no casualties and very minor damage." Lang reported, proudly.

HR.

The people in the hall, listening to Minmei's concert, felt a slight shaking. Dismissing it as the ship maneuvering, they continued to sit and listen.

HR.

Ranma flew his Veritech into the largest concentration of Zentraedi. They were almost all old style battle pods and this battle wouldn't be all that bad. Spraying the pods with fire from his Gui-11, Ranma smirked as they exploded in flames.

Ben sat in his usual bombardment position, covering Ranma. The Blue squadron Pilot was next to him, both blazing away with Missiles and Gui-11s into the enemy battle pods.

None of the three pilots realized the enemy's tactics until it was too late. The enemy battle pods were intentionally distracting them. A large number had made it past the Veritechs and to the Macross. These pods were using any entrances available to get into the ship. Through the hangars and the airlocks, and even through supply loading bays, the Zentraedi blew off hatches and flooded in.

Several seconds later, Ranma received an urgent message from the ship. "Captain Saotome. Get back here! The enemy has managed to gain access to the inside of the Macross and is now destroying the city."

"What?" Ranma muttered, quickly relaying orders to his wingmen to follow him as he flew at full speed back to the ship.

HR.

Warlord Kyron laughed as his men walked through the Macross. It had been all too easy to overwhelm the fighter defenses with numbers and get inside. Unfortunately, he was still running into resistance in the form of strange Micronian Mecha that he had never seen before. They looked almost like the humanoid forms of the normal Mecha, however they couldn't transform and had much more powerful main guns. For the most part, they did not have missiles but they were still a formidable force.

HR.

At the concert, Minmei could hear the sounds of explosions in the distance. Deciding that she didn't want to panic the people in the building, she kept singing and attempted to look calm. For the most part, this worked. People were listening to her song and not the explosions. The only exceptions were a group of Fighter pilots, composed of Skull squadron, Roy, who knew he couldn't fly but had to try and help, and Max, who was followed by Miriya.

Max finally noticed his tail as he was running out the main entrance of the concert hall. "I'll catch up guys!" He shouted, turning back around to talk to Miriya. "I gotta go now. The enemy is attacking."

Miriya grabbed his arm. "Miriya come too!" She said, vehemently. "Miriya fight." This was all part of a plan to get Max alone to kill him... or so she told herself.

Max groaned. "Look Miriya. I gotta get out there. Please just stay here and..." He was cut off by the sight of a small knife appearing in Miriya's hand. "What the?"

Miriya jumped forward, slashing downwards with the knife. Max threw himself sideways and grabbed Miriya's upper arm. Breaking free, Miriya snarled. "I Miriya Parina of Meltraedi Quadrano group. You shoot me down once, it lucky. You shoot me down twice, it your last victory!" Saying this, she lunged forward again. "I not take loss again!"

Suddenly, something clicked in Max's mind. Miriya's voice sounded familiar because he had heard it before, in his Veritech's radio. He couldn't believe it. This girl was the ace pilot that he had faced off against in the air twice? The one that had almost shot him down twice in a row. His thoughts were interrupted by Miriya's next lunge. Deciding to end this, he relied on his superior strength to tackle Miriya to the ground. Grabbing her arm, he twisted her wrists until Miriya was forced to drop the knife with a soft cry of pain.

If Miriya had been standing up, her body language now would have been described as slumped. As it was, she just bore a resigned look on her face. "You kill now yes?" She asked.

Max blinked. "Kill?"

Miriya sighed. "You win. I lose. I deserve die. I not take failure again."

Max was astonished. "I'm not going to kill you Miriya... I... I love you." He almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation. He was telling the woman that had just tried to kill him that he loved her.

Miriya blinked. "You...love?" She asked. "What you mean?"

Max made a snap, and many people would say insanely stupid, decision. "I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you...marry me?"

Max let Miriya's hand go and rolled off of her. He still had her knife but other than that he was leaving himself open for any attack. Miriya tried to hit him. Really she did, but she just couldn't. "Miriya not know what Marry is but if that what you ask me for losing, I will."

Max smiled, relieved that his insanely stupid decision hadn't backfired on him. "I have to get going to help protect the city. Stay here alright?"

Miriya nodded dumbly and Max ran off.

HR.

Ranma's Veritech came flying into the landing deck and straight out the rarely opened door on the other side. Flying inside Macross city was a rather new experience. It wasn't exactly like flying on earth, as the flight ceiling was quite literally a ceiling. Switching to Battleoid mode, he descended to street level.

Seeing a group of Zentraedi Battle Pods, walking on two legs, he opened up his Gui-11 and destroyed them. He had never fought a ground war, except for in the simulators, but true to form, He was adapting and inventing tactics for it. He would hide around corners and pop out for surprise attacks.

Ben was somewhere near the central area of the city, the Blue squadron volunteer in tow.

HR.

Warlord Kyron scowled as he saw a few of his troops wandering randomly. Calling them up, the face of a soldier that he recognized as a low level pilot named Brun appeared on the screen. "What are you doing? Get back in formation and continue with the destruction of the Micronian fortress." Kyron ordered, sharply.

"We're looking for Minmei. We can hear her singing." Brun responded.

"Well, stop looking for Minmei and get back to work." Kyron ordered, getting angry.

"I apologize, Warlord. We will not." Brun's face blinked off of Kyron's display as he closed the channel.

'I will stop this.' Kyron thought, kicking in the thrusters on his pod and heading for the disobedient Mecha.

HR.

Minmei stood, still singing as the battle raged around the hall. She had completely tuned it out, only concerned with keeping the people calm. About half the crowd had already left, in an orderly fashion thanks to Minmei's calming influence, and the other was still sitting and listening. Just then, the back of the hall caved in, revealing two Zentraedi Battle pods with laser cannons aimed at Minmei. Just as they were about to fire, they heard her singing through they're external audio Mic units and froze, Just as a missile from Rick hunter's VF-1J slammed into the back of each.

Rick flew into the hall, landing his Veritech in an empty area. "Are you alright Minmei?" he asked, through his speakers.

"I'm fine Rick. Good timing there though." Minmei responded.

Rick took up a position, with the rest of skull to help, defending the hall.

HR.

Ranma walked through the streets of Macross city, scanning for more enemies with his Chi sense. He got a very odd reading about two blocks ahead. It was like twenty or thirty Zentraedi squeezed into the space that six or so would normally occupy. Worried about the sheer number of signals that he was getting, Ranma snuck up on his targets, hoping that the element of surprise would help him.

As he got close to the odd Zentraedi signals, a new one approached and then joined the large mass. He stuck his Veritech's head around a corner to get a look.

There were six Battle pods standing in a row. a seventh, looking like a leader, was standing in front of them, pacing from left to right. Ranma could pick up Radio Signals from the seven pods and the pacing one seemed to have a very angry pilot. Suddenly, the pacing pod stopped, turned and pointed its laser cannon at one of the six stationary pods.

'What the hell?' Ranma thought, still observing from behind the building. 'He ain't gunna...' He was interrupted by the leader's pod shooting one of the six others, causing it to topple over.

Having had enough, Ranma ran out from behind the building. It didn't matter if these were Zentraedi, he had to help them. "What kind of commander shoots his own troops?" Ranma yelled into his comm as his Veritech came hurtling at the command pod with a leg extended. Slamming it into the pod's central section, the pod disintegrated with its pilot inside.

Ranma turned to the remaining five pods and tried something. "I assume that you aren't going to shoot me?" He asked, broadcasting on all frequencies.

A Familiar voice came through the comm. "No. Thank you, Captain Saotome."

Ranma blinked. "Kunda?" he asked, puzzled. He hadn't known the three Hibiki brothers very well but could still recognize they're voices.

"Yes Captain, It's me. I am a Zentraedi who was formerly sent to spy on the Macross and its crew. I and my friends now wish to seek "Asylum" aboard the ship."

Ranma blinked. "You're Zentraedi? Boy, Ryoga sure can pick 'em." He muttered, before switching over to the command frequency. "This is wild horse lead to bridge."

Sammy responded. "Bridge here, go ahead."

"I got a bit of a problem down in Macross City. There's a buncha Zentraedi down here askin for asylum n' I don't know what to do with them."

Sounds of confusion were heard before Captain Gloval's voice came over the radio. "They what?"

Ranma sighed. "They say that they want asylum on the Macross... That's protection right?" He was clueless about politics. "I don't know what to do with them and they're sitting in the middle of the city in a buncha battle pods."

"Understood, Captain Saotome. We will send a security force to deal with them. Get back to the fighting." Gloval responded, sounding confused.

Ranma looked back over at the battle pods. "A security team'll be here to help you guys in a few minutes. I gotta get back to the fight." He then Ran off to fight the next Zentraedi unit, which was apparently near the Hall.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	12. Chapter 12, Planet of the Apes Reject

Okay, only ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO! After that, I'm gunna add an 'authors closing' chapter, just so I don't have a total of 13. Sorry, but that is one superstition I can't seem to get over.

Chapter 12, To Join Together.

The battle inside the SDF-1 was becoming one sided. The enemy seemed helpless without their leader to give them tactical orders and all grouped together near the exits. It was a simple matter for the ship's Destroids and Veritechs to clean them up.

As Ranma landed his Veritech, a pretty good trick since he did it in reverse, Max Sterling ran into the launch bay. "Is the battle over Captain?" He shouted as he ran.

"Yeah Max. Sorry you missed out on the fun." Ranma said, hopping from his cockpit to the ground.

"Oh, I got plenty of action." Max muttered, causing Ranma's eye to twitch.

"I hope you don't mean what I think you do, not that it's any of my business." Ranma muttered.

Realizing what he had said, Max began to blush. "Erm... no, that's not what I meant... My date turned out to be an alien sent to kill me."

"You're kidding right?" Ranma said, incredulously. "No, I bet you ain't. I just found out that those waiters from the Dragon are Zentraedi spies. Why not an alien Amazon?"

"They're what?" Max sighed. "This is going to be a long day."

HR.

Ranma, Max, Lisa, Brun, Reko, Kunda and Miriya sat in a conference room across the table from Captain Gloval.

"Alright, so what's going on here?" Gloval asked, rubbing his temples.

Reko spoke up. "We want to request asylum onboard the Macross. We want to see Minmei and live as Micronians." He decided not to mention the Ranma portion of the "Macross Fan Club's" Mission, as the aforementioned pilot was sitting right next to him.

"Minmei?" Lisa interjected. "Why Minmei?"

Kunda spoke up here. "She sings so well, The Zentraedi troops LOVE her, not to mention Captain Saotome."

Ranma's eye twitched before he growled, "Don't wanna know."

Reko elbowed Kunda sharply.

"Well." Gloval sighed. "You're here now and apparently our size. We do have the room for you and your companions although we would want to know a bit about Zentraedi culture. fair exchange?"

The three Zentraedi nodded eagerly. "That's fine." Reko said, excited.

"Fine then. Now that that is temporarily resolved." Gloval continued, looking over at Max and Miriya, who were sitting in chairs next to each other. "What's your story?"

Max started to stammer before Miriya cut him off. "I sent by Meltraedi to assassinate Pilot Max Sterling. I try but he beat me. He say he "Love" me... I don't know what "Love" really mean... But I think I Love him too. We get married."

Gloval blinked. "Let me get this straight. You came to kill Lt. Sterling, and now you're getting married?" His voice contained an evident note of incredulity.

Ranma spoke up. "Sounds like an Amazon to me." He commented, casually, before being glared at by Lisa and Miriya.

Gloval laughed. "Alright Lt. Sterling, you will have to take responsibility for watching Miss Parina until we confirm that these people are actually requesting asylum and not trying to blow us up. Also, the Zentraedi will have to stay in a secured area until the same time. Other than that, this meeting is dismissed."

The officers, Zentraedi and one Meltraedi walked out of the conference room, leaving Gloval to sit there, shaking his head.

HR.

Ranma walked down the hall with Lisa, Max and Miriya. The three Zentraedi had turned off at a branch of the corridor a while earlier. "So, Max. You didn't listen to my warnings about Amazons huh?" He laughed, getting a scowl from Miriya.

"No Captain, and it's a good thing." Max grinned, grabbing Miriya's hand.

Lisa grinned. "I think it's kinda romantic. He fought her for her hand."

Ranma blinked. "Was that you Lisa? You feelin alright?"

Lisa swatted Ranma on the arm. "I can be romantic, I just don't normally do it."

Remembering what Akane had done when he had said something about tomboys to a comment like that... Ranma said it anyways. "Ah, that's my tomboy."

Lisa growled. "You do know I outrank you right?"

Ranma shrugged. "That's why I never call you uncute... Ow!" Lisa had just punched him in the ribs, hard.

"I do that to you Max?" Miriya questioned.

"Erm... no. That's fine." Max said, sweat dropping.

Just then, the four entered the White Dragon. Minmei was behind the cash register, taking orders. "Hey guys." She greeted, seeing them walk in.

"Hey Minmei." Was the reply.

As they found a table, Ranma commented to Max. "We sure can pick em."

Max blinked. "What?"

Ranma continued. "I get a command Rank tomboy and you get an Alien Amazon... Just seems funny."

Max laughed.

Just then, Miriya and Lisa showed up with they're orders and sat down, followed by Minmei.

"Congratulations Max." Minmei said, brightly.

Max blinked. "For what?"

"You're getting married, idiot." Minmei responded, exasperated.

"Oh, Yeah." Max said, with a nervous laugh.

Ranma remembered something. "Oh. Minmei. Those waiters of yours are back..."

"Really? I've been missing their help."

"Yeah, they're in a secure area for now but should be let out tomorrow or there abouts... and you've got a whole buncha new fans."

Lisa grinned. "And what about you, Ranma? They did mention your name as well."

"I don't wanna think about it." Ranma muttered.

Minmei giggled.

HR.

Captain Gloval sat in his office, pondering what he'd heard at the meeting a few hours earlier. The Zentraedi were seeking asylum. Maybe this meant that peace with them was possible. He'd have to be cautious and have security keep an eye on the ship's new passengers, but he was quietly optomistic about the latest turn of events.

As for the other matter, it was surprising, Very surprising but if Lt. Sterling was serious, he wouldn't do anything to stop him or the woman.

He was interrupted in his pondering by a knock at his ready room door. "Come in." He yelled, sitting up straight.

Commander Lang walked in and sat down. "Captain, I've found something very interesting in the Zentraedi blood samples I took."

Gloval shrugged. "Alright, what is it? And try to say it in normal Japanese."

Lang laughed slightly. "I'll try. The Zentraedi seem to have normal human DNA. There are variations that would be expected of two groups of people who live in different areas but the main structure is human, or at least very close."

"What?" Gloval asked, surprised.

Lang sighed. "I'm saying these people are human. Just 'really' big."

Gloval nodded. "Thank you Commander... you've just made one of my decisions easier... and things a lot more complicated."

Commander Lang nodded before walking out of the room.

HR.

Ranma was sitting in his room, watching "Good Morning, Macross!" when captain Gloval's announcement came on.

"This is Captain Gloval to the people of Macross City. Yesterday, a group of Zentraedi refugees came aboard the SDF-1. We have determined that they are not a threat and they are going to be let out of the holding areas and into the general population. We request that you try to help them as best you can. These people are to be treated as any other civilian onboard the SDF-1. Thank you."

Gloval's face blinked off, to reveal the smiling face of the "Good Morning, Macross." announcer who was saying something about a wedding.

"And in a happy occasion, Lt. Max Sterling of Wild Horse squadron has stated that he's getting married tomorrow afternoon. The lucky lady is apparently a female Zentraedi. This will probably be an interesting marriage."

Ranma blinked. 'He works fast don't he?' He thought, getting up. It was time to get going to the dragon for breakfast. His cooking was better than Akane's, but that didn't stop him from wanting to avoid doing it whenever possible.

HR.

The day passed rather smoothly. There were no further Zentraedi attacks and the Refugees were being pretty much accepted by the people of Macross City. Some of them were suffering from culture shock but other than that it was a rather easy transition for them.

Ben and the rest of Wild Horse had thrown a rather large bachelor party for Max. Ranma hadn't gone but he could hear the music from his room.

HR.

The next day, Max walked up to Ranma in the dragon. "Hey Captain."

Ranma looked up from his food. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you'd do something for me."

Ranma blinked. "What's that?"

"Well, I kinda asked Minmei to sing at the wedding... and she said she wouldn't unless you accompanied her." Max scratched the back of his head.

"What?" Ranma asked, spiting a piece of pork from his Pork Ramen half way across the restaurant.

"Aw, C'mon Captain." Max begged.

"No way in hell Max. Not again." Ranma objected, shaking his head violently.

"So... you're scared?" Max said, smirking. This was risky as Ranma was his CO but he was pretty sure it would work.

"I ain't scared of nothin!" Ranma said, automatically. "Well, except for c-cats." He added.

"So you'll do it then?" Max asked, still grinning.

Ranma growled. "Why, why do I let people do that every time? Yes! Fine. I'll do it... but you owe me for this."

Max gulped but walked off triumphantly.

HR.

Ranma scowled at Minmei, tugging at the fabric of her dress. "I understand why we need to be in 'Fancy Dress' but this?"

Minmei giggled. "But you look so pretty, Ranma."

Ranma looked down at the long red... thing... that Minmei had somehow talked her into wearing during the wedding and shivered. "Max, I'm going to get you for this." Ranma muttered under her breath.

Minmei just laughed some more. "C'mon Ranma, we're going out there to entertain people. You have to look right."

"And what's wrong with my dress uniform or somethin?" Ranma asked, desperately trying to think of a way to avoid walking out into the crowded reception area.

Sighing resignedly, Minmei just grabbed Ranma's arm and tugged. Ranma followed, reluctantly.

HR.

Brun, Reko and Kunda stood in the middle of the crowd of people milling around the hall. They knew Lt. Sterling and had been invited. When they heard that Minmei was going to be singing, with Ranma as backup, they had decided to come. They didn't really know what a wedding was for, but everyone was having a good time so it had to be good.

"This Wine stuff is pretty good, isn't it Brun?" Reko questioned, taking a long and hardy gulp out of his glass.

"Yeah. It's very good, but I'm starting to feel kind of strange." Brun responded.

Kunda nodded slowly and deliberately as his coordination was starting to go. Too bad no one told the Zentraedi to drink in moderation...

HR.

Max was explaining what was going to happen to Miriya. "And then we put the rings on each other's fingers and kiss."

"What kiss?" Miriya asked, confused.

"Erm... Like touch our lips together." Max attempted to explain.

"That sound strange but I try." Miriya said, still slightly confused. She tugged at her long white wedding gown. "Still don't get point of long clothes." She muttered, with a look on her face that was rather similar to Ranma's earlier.

HR.

Lisa Hayes stood near the door to the hall, waiting for Ranma and Minmei to show up. She wanted to talk to Ranma and maybe hang around with her during the latter part of the reception. Even if Ranma was going to be in girl form, she could still make a sort of date out of the occasion.

Lisa almost dropped her glass of water as she saw Ranma and Minmei walking in. "R...Ranma?" She sputtered, seeing the red haired girl, wearing a floor length dress and earrings that looked to go through actual pierced ears.

"Don't say it." Ranma said, glaring at her.

That's when Lisa burst out laughing.

HR.

Commander Bretai of the Zentraedi looked on in confusion at the signal that the Micronian Battle Fortress had been transmitting for the last few minutes. It appeared to be a scene of a hall, filled with people. He had been informed that the caption at the bottom left read "Max Sterling's Wedding." but no one knew what a "Wedding" was or who "Max Sterling" was for that matter. The reason that Bretai was watching this transmission was because three Zentraedi, apparently Micronized, had been seen in the crowd. He wondered what was going on.

Suddenly, the image focused in on a small stage at the back of the hall where two Micronian females were standing in front of voice amplification devices.

The taller one said something in Micronian that Bretai didn't bother to translate and the two began to sing. "This must be one of those "Concerts."" Bretai muttered.

"But why would they call it a "Wedding," Commanderi?" His aid, Excedor, questioned.

The two watched for a few more minutes until the two females stepped off of the stage, making way for a tall male who intelligence had identified as "Captain Gloval."

The captain began to speak, and Bretai read the subtitles at the bottom of the transmission.

"We are gathered here today, to celebrate the Marriage of one of our Veritech Pilots, Max Sterling, to a woman who was once part of our enemy's forces. I, Myself, hope that this will bring Human and Zentraedi towards a state of peace."

Bretai blinked. "Doesn't the word "Woman" mean female?" He asked, questioningly.

Excedor nodded.

"But the Zentraedi race is all male. Does he mean a Meltraedi?"

. "I don't know, Commander." Excedor responded.

"And what is this "Piece" that he speaks of?"

"We don't know Commander. The word seems to have no analogue in our language. As near as we can tell, it's a time when there is no conflict. Maybe they want to surrender?" Excedor wondered.

They were brought back to the scene on the screen when the camera zoomed in on a different area. A woman, apparently a Meltraedi, was walking down a carpet wearing a long white dress.

Bretai stroked his chin. "That Meltraedi looks familiar." He muttered, looking her up and down.

Excedor made a surprised noise. "That's Group leader Miriya Parina. She's one of Commander Azonia's people."

"That's where I've seen her before then. Why is she over there?"

On the screen, Miriya had walked up to the front of the hall. Max was standing there, in front of an older looking man in some sort of robe.

As the man read the wedding vows, Bretai and Excedor speculated.

"That sounds almost like an alliance pledge." Bretai said.

"The wording is slightly different though. What does "To have and to hold" mean anyways?" Excedor responded.

Suddenly, an alert light on a console in front of Excedor blinked on. Looking at the display, he looked confused. "Commander Azonia is signaling us. I'm putting her through now."

Bretai nodded.

A woman's face appeared, pushing the image of the wedding to one side. "Commander Bretai. Are you watching the transmissions from the Micronian ship?"

Bretai nodded. "Yes. This is rather confusing though. What's your Group leader doing over there?"

Azonia shrugged. "I don't know. She requested permission to go over to take revenge on one of they're pilots for shooting her down. It was a matter of honor so I allowed her to do it. Apparently, she is doing something Else. What I am really calling about is this "Piece" proposal that they're Captain talked of."

Bretai blinked. "Do you have a better translation of the word than we do? We do not see much importance in it."

Azonia nodded. "From what we can tell, they appear to be asking for an Alliance. They want to work with us."

"An Alliance? So that is what Miriya Parina is doing." Bretai muttered.

Azonia took on a more serious cast. "I think we should respond soon. We haven't been able to overcome the Micronians by force, perhaps an alliance, even a temporary one, would work better."

"Alright. Who should contact them then?" Bretai asked, keeping one eye on Azonia and one on the continuing wedding scene on the other side of the screen.

"You have already communicated with the Micronians. I would recommend that you do it. Also, there are more Zentraedi than Meltraedi aboard that space fortress... I'm only missing one of my people. You are missing about 30, correct?" Azonia said, smirking a bit at the end.

Bretai sighed. "I will contact them in a few cycles. I'll tell you what they said afterwards. Is that acceptable?"

Azonia nodded and the screen blanked.

"Pleasant isn't she?" Excedor remarked.

Bretai actually laughed. "Hearing that statement, I think we've already been around Micronians too long."

HR.

Ranma sat in the audience next to Lisa. She had been let off the hook by Minmei after a few songs but didn't want to leave the ceremony for long enough to change back. Lisa didn't seem to mind all that much though, as her constantly holding onto Ranma's hand attested.

Miriya and Max were just finishing they're vows, with Max saying "I do" and Miriya simply saying "Yes." As Max leaned forward to kiss Miriya, Ranma remembered something. 'Didn't those Zentraedi act really weird when me 'n Lisa kissed?'

HR.

Miriya blinked as Max leaned towards her. 'This must be that kissing thing.' she thought, leaning in and mimicking Max's actions. They're lips touched, and for an instant Miriya wanted to draw back shuddering, until she started realizing how good this felt.

Max did a credible imitation of what Ranma had done the first time Lisa had kissed him. If he had had a pigtail the likeness would have been perfect, right down to the dopey grin. Suddenly, a lot of noise came from the back of the hall. looking back, Max saw three figures, clapping and hooting loudly.

"Yeah!" one yelled.

"Good work, Max Sterling!" another piped up.

They were obviously intoxicated... very much so. They walked down the isle, only swaying slightly and grabbed Max by the shoulders. "What the?" Max yelled as he was carried out by the three men.

Miriya growled and ran after them, her long white dress trailing behind her.

Ranma blinked and then whispered to the astonished Lisa. "Man, I feel like I'm back in Nerima."

Lisa started giggling frantically. She had had, perhaps, a little too much to drink herself. Thankfully Ranma didn't drink... for obvious reasons.

HR.

Lisa Hayes woke up, groaning. Where was she? Looking around, she found herself on a bed... not hers... Ranma's? Frantically looking around, she saw Ranma sleeping on the floor next to the bed, still in female form. Lisa sighed in relief. If Ranma was still in female form, she hadn't done anything really stupid, or at least she hoped she hadn't.

Just then, Ranma rolled over and opened her eyes. "Hi Lisa. You're finally awake."

"What do you mean by that, Ranma?" Lisa asked, slightly angrily. She had just woken up in her boyfriend's room, not knowing how she'd gotten there and he... er... she just commented on her being awake.

"I tried to walk you home after Max's wedding last night, but you kinda fell asleep on the way. how can you sleep standing up like that? Anyways, I slung you over my shoulders and tried to carry you home but I don't got keys to your apartment so I had to bring you here. Sorry." The redhead explained, hurriedly.

Lisa blinked. Could that be the truth? Then again, this was Ranma, who had once tried to lie to her, and she still snickered at the memory. It probably was true. Weird as hell though.

Lisa sat up in bed, realizing that she was still wearing her dress uniform, and swung her legs over the side. "What time is it?"

"About 08:00". Ranma said, looking at a wall clock.

"08:00? I'm late for my shift!" Lisa yelled, panicked. She jumped up and ran out of the room, straightening her rather rumpled dress uniform.

Ranma just shrugged, got up off the floor and changed out of her T-shirt and Boxers into her usual Pilot's uniform. Grabbing her wallet off of her night stand, she pocketed it, walked into the bathroom and came out in male form. 'Time for breakfast.' was his last thought before opening the door.

HR.

Lisa stepped onto the bridge, still trying to straighten her rumpled uniform. Noticing this, Vanessa Leeds smirked. "Have fun last night Commander?" She asked, one eyebrow raised.

Unconsciously picking up an expression from Ranma, Lisa responded quickly. "It ain't like that!"

"Sure it ain't." Kim young drawled.

Sammy spoke up. "Aw, c'mon. Lay off the Commander, she needs to loosen up."

Lisa face faulted when she heard this statement from Sammy.

Captain Gloval walked into the bridge, stepping over the face faulted Lisa. "Are you going to get off the floor commander?" he asked, slightly amused.

Lisa jumped up, blushing. "Sorry sir."

Gloval chuckled. "Don't let it happen again."

HR.

Ranma walked into the Wild Horse briefing room to see a whole lot of pilots holding hands to they're heads.

"You guys Ok to fly?" He asked, worried.

The four men groaned but nodded.

Ranma noticed something. "Um... Where's Max?"

Ben spoke up. "He didn't show up this morning. I think he's still in his quarters."

Ranma sighed. "O'Hara, you're in flight one today. I'll take your place in two for patrol 2."

Lt. O'Hara nodded.

"Alright. Today we have close patrol. Since I'm pretty sure that almost none of you can fly a straight line at the moment, we won't do training today. Let's go."

Ben and O'Hara trooped out behind Ranma as if they were on a thousand mile forced march.

"Man. I'm glad I don't drink." Ranma muttered, looking at the near zombified state of his squadron.

HR.

Lisa watched a radar display as Wild Horse squadron flew close patrol around the SDF-1. She often entertained herself on long shifts by trying to predict where the planes in patrols were going to go next without looking at the sector patrol list. She was brought out of her contemplation of nothing by Sammy speaking up.

"Commander. We are receiving a signal from... the Zentraedi?" Sammy's voice sounded disbelieving.

"Page Captain Gloval and put it through." Lisa ordered, wondering what was going on.

A man's face appeared on the screen. "I am Commander Bretai of the Zentraedi fleet. I wish to discuss "Piece" negotiations. May I speak to Captain Gloval?"

Lisa's jaw dropped. 'Piece Negotiations? Is he serious?' "Erm... Captain Gloval is on his way to the bridge at the moment. Please wait?"

The Zentraedi nodded.

HR.

Several moments later, Captain Gloval ran onto the bridge to see the face of the Zentraedi on the main screen. "What's going on?" He asked, panting as he had run up here from one of the squadron meeting rooms.

"Greetings Captain." Bretai spoke. "I'm commander Bretai of the Zentraedi. I wish to discuss "Piece" negotiations."

Gloval had generally the same reaction as Lisa but hid it better. "Alright. Having this discussion over a comm channel is rather awkward though. Is it possible for you to come over to the Macross?"

Bretai nodded. "That would be possible... I would have to bring guards of course."

Gloval reluctantly agreed. :"Two guards? And we have a squadron of our own escort you to the ship."

Bretai shrugged. "That is acceptable. I and the Meltraedi Commander Azonia will be coming aboard in an hour. We will be Micronized but our guards will not. They will stay in your launch bay." Bretai's image winked off of the screen.

Gloval stood stunned. He had just worked out the first stage of a piece negotiation with a Zentraedi.. And he had done it through improvisation. The instructors at the officers academy had NEVER seen something like this coming.

HR.

Ranma received orders from the macross not to shoot at the next group of battle pods that was supposed to drop out of fold space. "What the hell?" was his only comment as he relayed the orders to Ben and O'Hara.

About 20 minutes later, three Zentraedi battle pods dropped into normal space. Flying in towards them, Ranma turned his radio on. "This is Captain Saotome of Wild Horse squadron. I've been ordered to escort you to the SDF-1. Me and my squadron will form up around you, me in front and a fighter on either side. Understood?"

A voice came through almost immediately. Ranma vaguely recognized it. "This is Commander Bretai. I understand."

Wild horse swung into position and the six planes flew towards the Macross. As Ranma and Wild Horse landed, Ben and O'Hara spun and covered the three Zentraedi craft. After the green pods had settled to the ground, Ranma ordered his wingmen to cover them as he hopped out of his own machine.

One of the three battle pods knelt down and popped it's hatch, revealing two normal human sized forms. Ranma approached and finally recognized one of the forms. "You're the guy who questioned Me, Lisa and Ben on that battleship." He blurted.

Bretai laughed. "It's good to meet you again Captain Saotome."

Ranma nodded, recovering some of his non-existant tact before speaking again. "Well, Captain Gloval and Commander Hayes are waiting for you in the bridge meeting room. I'll take you there, alright?"

Bretai and the woman standing next to him nodded.

Before the group left the landing bay, the two aliens were asked to relinquish any sidearms they were carrying by a guard at the door, which they reluctantly did.

HR.

As Ranma walked down a hall of the Macross, leading Bretai and Azonia, something that hadn't happened in a long while happened. That is his water magnetism acted up. A Maintenance worker who was cleaning a bulkhead nearby kicked a bucket of dirty wash water and it splashed all over Ranma.

Ranma looked at the two alien leaders, who were looking at her in astonishment.

"So that was the truth." Bretai muttered.

:How?" Azonia sputtered, shocked that this Micronian male could turn into a female. She had seen Wild Horse 1 but had assumed that that part had been one of those "Fictional" events that she had heard about.

"Long story. Stay away from the Bayankala mountain range in China." Ranma said, smiling a bit. "It's a bit weird when you see it for the first time... but it has nothing to do with what you are here for so let's keep going."

Bretai and Azonia nodded, overcoming their astonishment.

As Ranma led the two alien leaders through a portion of the city that was on the way to the lift to the bridge, she had to stop several times to wait for them to speculate on the purpose of this building or that. It was only when she heard something about "Battle Arenas" and "Simulator chambers" that she interrupted.

"Actually, we're just in a housing block at the moment. those are all residential units."

Azonia blinked. "How many people do you have on this ship?"

Ranma thought for a moment, scratching her head. "About twenty thousand, I think." She said, sounding unsure.

"You need that many soldiers?" Bretai asked, inquisitively.

"Oh, they ain't all soldiers. We've got a pretty big Civilian population and Engineering core aboard."

Bretai and Azonia roughly knew what a "Civilian" was, a noncombatant. The term engineer puzzled them though. Finally Bretai spoke up. "What is an... engineer?"

"Someone who fixes ship's systems. My friend Ryoga's a flight deck crew chief. He fixes my Veritech if it gets shot up. Don't know how he does it and I don't much care." Ranma laughed. Looking down at her watch, she cursed, getting a raized eyebrow from the aliens. "I was supposed to have you two up on the bridge three minutes ago. Let's go!"

Bretai and Azonia exchanged glances as they saw Ranma start running. Shrugging, they followed.

HR.

The lift arrived at the bridge and Ranma and the two commanders stepped out. "Sorry sir. They wanted to ask a few questions." Ranma explained, sheepishly.

Captain Gloval nodded. "That's quite alright Captain. Come with me, commander Bretai and?"

He asked, looking at the woman next to Bretai.

"Commander Azonia of the Meltraedi." She responded, nodding.

"Gloval nodded. "You come as well Captain Saotome."

Ranma blinked but complied.

Gloval led the way to a conference room where Lisa was already sitting. Sitting down himself, he gestured for the other three to take seats.

"So, commander Bretai. You mentioned wishing to discuss peace?"

Bretai nodded. "The Zentraedi and Meltraedi fleets have invested far too many resources in the battle against you and the rest of the Micronian forces. We must get protoculture to maintain our ships and you have it. I also understand that many of my people have joined your crew. I do not believe that so many people would desert the Zentraedi military with no good reason."

Azonia also spoke. "My Group leader, Miriya Parina, is a good judge of allies. If she wishes to Ally with you, I have no choice but to at least consider it."

Gloval nodded. "I see. I don't really know what "protoculture" is but if we have it and you need it then I don't see why we can't work something out."

Bretai blinked. "You don't know what it is?" he asked, surprised. "It's the power source of all of your machines. It is what your pilots use in they're mecha. According to the combat record, "Wild Horse 1" some of your people can even use it without any equipment."

Ranma spoke up. "So you do mean Reflex energy and Chi!"

Gloval nodded. "We do have some spare Reflex reactors. As for the Chi, I don't know much about that. It's Captain Saotome's department."

Bretai and Azonia looked over at Ranma who blushed and scratched the back of her head at the serious scrutiny. "Erm, you mean this?" She asked, manifesting a yellow battle aura.

Bretai nodded

"Well, it usually takes a lot of training to get chi control like mine. Captain Fokker of Skull squadron had a big chi reserve to begin with. Some people are just born like that. You Zentraedi seem to have a lot of Chi because you need enough to maintain your larger bodies. I think it'd be easy enough to teach a human sized Zentraedi to use they're Chi, but I couldn't teach just anyone the art."

The Negotiations went on for several more minutes before a strange sound began to emanate from bretai's uniform pocket. Pulling out what looked like a fragment of a comm unit from his pocket, Bretai spoke into it. "Yes?"

A voice came out, sounding worried. The language wasn't Japanese and all of the humans at the table looked blank. Azonia's face went pale.

Bretai sighed. "Thank you Excedor. This is not good news." He then flicked the comm unit off and put it into his pocket.

"What's wrong?" Lisa asked, worried.

"That was my aid aboard my flagship. High Commander Dolza has become impatient with our results. He's bringing the grand fleet to destroy your home world and take this ship by force." Bretai said, grimly.

"What?" Ranma blurted, before being quieted by a gesture from Captain Gloval.

"Can we stop this "Grand Fleet"?" Gloval asked, sounding worried.

"No. It's in fold space now and coming our way rapidly. It should be here in a matter of days." Azonia said, having heard and understood Excedor's speech.

Captain Gloval nodded grimly. "Will you help us fight?"

Bretai and Azonia nodded. "We are allies now. We will help defend you." Bretai said.

"We don't have a chance of winning against the grand fleet... but it will be a good fight." Azonia said, a slight smile on her face.

"Don't count us out just yet." Gloval said. "Us "Micronians" are a stubborn bunch."

"We are going to go back to our flagships and prepare for the coming battle." Bretai said, Azonia nodding in agreement.

"Captain Saotome, please take our guests back to the launch bay." Gloval ordered.

Ranma nodded, got up and said "This way."

As the three exited the room and the door slid shut, Lisa looked over to Captain Gloval. "That went surprizingly well." She commented.

"I know, but I believe I know why it did." The captain said, leaning back in his chair.

"Why is that, sir?" Lisa asked, confused.

"I believe that this 'Dolza' person won't hesitate to destroy Bretai and Azonia's fleets along with us for their failure." Gloval stated, looking worriedly out of one of the room's windows.

Lisa's own expression was equally worried as she joined him.

HR.

The next day or so was a blur. The SDF-1's engineering crews were working frantically to repair any battle damage since the last refit and to enhance the weapons batteries. Someone had had an idea to weld Destroid Missile racks to the outer hull of the ship in order to give it more firepower and the cooperation with the Zentraedi and Meltraedi was paying off as they knew more about the older systems of the Macross. They didn't know how to repair them, only how they worked, but that was enough to repair the close and far range Reflex cannons. The ship was loaded for war.

The pilots were also preparing. Even Blue, Gold and the other second string squadrons were preparing and training.

Ranma and Wild Horse spent more time in the air than on the ground. After the first day, things started to slow down. People were on edge but they couldn't do much about it. The ship was completely ready and if the squadrons did any more practice they wouldn't be ready for the battle.

HR.

As Ranma sat in the Wild Horse briefing room, going crazy with waiting, Max walked in lead by Miriya.

"I'm telling you Miriya. He won't let you."

"I no care, Max. I ask anyways."

Ranma looked up. "What is it?" he asked, snapping by accident. "Erm... sorry. I didn't mean to do that. It's getting a bit tense, you know."

Max and Miriya nodded and then Miriya spoke up. "I want know if I fly in Wild Horse squadron with Max."

Ranma blinked. "You want to what?"

Miriya repeated her proclamation.

"Sure." Ranma said, actually smiling. "From what I saw, you're a good pilot. Max, Familiarize her with a Veritech's controls in the simulators."

Max stood there with his mouth open. "Sir?"

"What?"

"But she can't... I mean she's..."

"She's what?" Ranma interrupted. "She's a Meltraedi, who we made peace with two days ago. She's a girl, which I may remind you that I am half the time. She's married to you? Actually, I think that's a good reason to put her up. You'll cover each other's backs."

Ranma walked out, leaving a sputtering Max and a grinning Miriya. 'I am beginning to like this Commander.' Miriya thought, giggling at Max's expression.

HR.

Ranma walked into the Command staff housing area and up to Lisa's door. Knocking, he held the bunch of flowers that he had in his left hand tighter.

"Hey Ranma." Lisa said, suddenly noticing the flowers. "Oh wow!"

Ranma grinned as he handed Lisa the flowers. "I figured we could go on a date before the big battle."

Lisa grinned. "Really? You made room in your busy schedule?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Actually, Ben kinda grabbed me by the pigtail and threw me out of the briefing room. Still thinking of reprimanding him for that..."

Lisa leaned forward and kissed Ranma on the cheek. "Please don't."

Ranma numbly nodded, before reaching out and taking Lisa's hand. The two left her apartment complex on their way to the white dragon.

HR.

As Ranma and Lisa walked into the Dragon, they saw Rick and Minmei sitting at a table and Max and Miriya at another. The three "Hibiki" brothers were running between tables, apparently having this shift.

Ranma led the way to a table and pulled a chair for Lisa.

"Wow, you're acting gentlemanly tonight." Lisa said, smiling at Ranma.

Ranma laughed. "Would you rather I act normal and accidentally insult you within the first five minutes?"

Lisa's smile turned into a grin. "That would seem to be your normal course of action. Well, let's order our meals."

Ranma's eyes gleamed hungrily. "Sounds good."

"Now that's the Ranma I know." Lisa giggled as she signaled for one of the waiters to come over.

After a while of small talk and eating, Ranma spoke up. "So, what's the captain planning?"

Lisa shrugged. "I don't know. He and Commander Lang have been shut up in his ready room for the last day. He hasn't told me or anyone else what's going on."

Ranma was about to respond when he saw Roy Fokker walking into the dragon, a scowl on his face. Roy walked over and plopped down at their table.

"Erm... Hi Roy." Ranma said, uncertainly.

"Hi kid." Roy replied, unenthusiastically.

"What's wrong, Captain Fokker?" Lisa asked, noting the odd tone.

Roy suddenly erupted. "Commander Lang won't let me back on flight duty. That's what's wrong."

"Well... He said you couldn't fly for the next few months... You didn't seem really upset about it earlier." Ranma said, confused.

"Look kid. How would you feel if Wild Horse was going into an important battle and you had to stay on the ground to repair broken deck plates?"

Ranma nodded. "You're worried about the skull."

"Damn right I am. Rick's a good pilot but not as good as me. What's he gunna do?" Roy had a rarely shown hint of worry in his voice.

"Look Roy. You chose Rick 'cuz he's the best man for the job right?" Ranma asked, reasonably.

Roy nodded.

"So let him do it. He'll be alright. I'm coverin his back with Wild Horse anyways remember?"

Roy blinked. "You're right kid. Just protect my guys alright?"

"Sure thing Roy." Ranma said, smirking. "I'm the best after all."

Roy punched Ranma on the back of the arm. "No kid. Skull and I are the best. you're second place."

Ranma grinned. "Sure, Roy. Sure you are."

The last sentence was followed by a sound of people at the front of the restaurant gasping. Ranma whipped his head around, followed by Roy and Lisa. The image on a hanging TV at the front of the Dragon dropped his heart into his stomach. A HUGE armada of Zentraedi warships were displayed, circling the Earth. As Ranma and the others in the restaurant watched, each of the Zentraedi Battle ships let out a single, large beam that hit the surface of the planet. Explosions could be seen at the impact points of the beams and a huge cloud of smoke boiled up.

"... oh my god." Lisa muttered, her hand over her mouth.

TO BE CONTINUED.


	13. Final Chapter, The Day the Fanfic Died

Final Chapter, End of an Era.

Akane Tendo stood in the Tendo family dojo, doing warm up Katas. Punching and kicking furiously, she finished one of the intermediate level moves in the Tendo School's move set.

Walking over to the Dojo's entrance, Akane looked out upon a beautiful day in the Nerima district. Sighing in a mixture of sadness, regret and a bit of contentment, she noticed something on the horizon.

"What the?" Akane muttered, shading her eyes. What ever the thing on the horizon was, it sure was bright. It almost looked like a second sun and it seemed to be getting bigger.

Akane's speculation on what the object in the sky was quickly ended as it seemed to start moving downward, impacting with the ground somewhere near the school. Akane's two older sisters, Nabiki and Kasumi, walked out into the yard, curious to find out what she was looking at.

"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped, seeing the tremendous blast of dust and debris that spewed into the sky from the impact site.

"This can't be good." Nabiki said, her calculating eyes taking in all around her.

Then the three sisters heard it, a rumbling sound, almost like an earth quake. No, that wasn't quite it.

"RUN!" Akane screamed, pushing Kasumi and Nabiki forward. The three sisters began running down the street, the massive shockwave from the impact of the Zentraedi reflex cannon blast closing on them.

As the blast caught up, Akane's last thought was, 'I have to protect my sisters!'

HR.

Ku Lon of the Chinese Amazons stopped in her preparation of Ramin noodles in the back of the Neko-Hanten restaurant as she felt something. Tilting her head, she attempted to get a clearer sense of what she felt, but could only be certain that it was some sort of strange, artificial seeming chi signature.

"Shampoo!" Cologne called, "Get Mr. Part Time and tell him to pack our things."

The purple haired Amazon known as Shampoo poked her head around the wall in between the kitchen and the rest of the restaurant. "Why we pack, Great Grandmother?"

"Do not question me girl, just do as you are told." Cologne snapped, feeling uneasy at the fact that the strange energy seemed to be growing closer, and stronger.

"I sorry great grandmother. I tell mousse right away!" Shampoo said, feeling uneasy at the old woman's tone. She hoped that what ever was going on wasn't going to be too dangerous.

Ironically, the Zentraedi beam took that moment to strike, wiping the Neko-Hanten and all within off of the face of the earth.

HR.

Ranma Saotome ran down the hall leading to the Wild Horse briefing room. He had just seen the bombardment of earth and was positive that the captain was going to want all squadrons up in the air. Ben Dixon ran up behind Ranma.

"Is it true?" I heard that the Zentraedi just bombarded earth."

"Yeah, didn't you see it? it was on every television in the entire ship." Ranma said. "Now let's go. Command'll want us up soon. Where's Max?"

"I think I saw him and Miriya coming this way earlier." Ben said, turning into the briefing room behind Ranma. His statement was confirmed as Wild Horse flight two's pilots, as well as Max and Miriya, already waited inside.

"Good." Ranma said, walking up to the podium in front of the squadron. "Alright people. From what we have seen, this is definitely the largest group of Zentraedi we have ever faced. The earth may have been bombarded but there is still a chance that there are survivors. We must defend the Macross and earth from any further attacks. Miriya, has Max shown you enough of the basics to fly a Veritech yet?"

Miriya nodded. "Max too good teacher. I know how fly Veritech."

"Good. Well, if that's everything." Ranma said, "Let's go."

HR.

Wild Horse squadron launched, followed by Skull, Gold, Blue and any other squadrons that were available on the Macross. Even a new squadron, "Vermillion," had been constructed, using some of the Zentraedi refugees that could learn to fly Veritechs.

In addition to this force, Bretai and Azonia had sent some of they're battle pods, painted in a different scheme from Dolza's, to help fight the battle. The Zentraedi and Meltraedi flag ships were also floating in space near the Macross.

"We don't stand a chance." Ben muttered, accidentally broadcasting it over the squadron frequency.

"Shut up Ben." Ranma retorted. "I don't need to hear that right now."

Unfortunately, Ben was quite right. The Zentraedi forces were overwhelming. There were more battleships than there normally were fighters in an engagement and there was one monstrous ship that seemed to be the attack's leader.

Shrugging inside his Veritech, Ranma pushed his thrusters full forward. "Well guys, Let's show 'em what the Wild Horses can do!" He said, broadcasting to his squadron. Acknowledgements came from all of the planes, accept Miriya who said, "Who you call Guy?"

Erm… right…" Ranma said, "Way to take the wind out of my sails there, Miriya."

Ben and Max laughed.

HR.

On the bridge of the SDF-1, Captain Gloval looked on as the Macross's fighters and their allies' battle pods flew out to engage the enemy. "How many enemy ships are out there?" He asked, dreading the answer.

"We don't know sir." Lang responded. "After the bombardment stops we can better estimate the number." His voice was cut off as something on his sensor panel began to beap. "Hold on a second." Lang carefully studied his instruments.

"What is it Commander?" Gloval asked, worriedly.

"It's earth. Grand Cannon 1 has survived and is charging to fire. They will not hit us, as we are out of arc, however they will take out a large number of enemy ships."

Gloval smiled. 'Finally something going our way.' He thought, looking out upon the battle field again.

As Gloval and the bridge crew watched, an immense beam of white energy burst from the surface of the earth and tore into the fleet of Zentraedi ships. The beam began moving slightly, carving a path of destruction and debris before it faded out.

"Captain, reports are coming in that Grand Cannon 1 destroyed itself with that last shot. We aren't going to get any more help from earth." Sammy porter reported, from her comm station.

Gloval nodded. "Commander Lang, begin transformation sequence and prepare the main cannon. Ms. Porter, broadcast audio files LM-1 through LM-15 on all non squadron related frequencies."

Lang nodded but Sammy blinked. "But sir, those are…"

"I know what those are." Gloval said. "I just hope I'm right."

Shrugging, Sammy tapped the keys to begin playing Lin Minmei music through the comm system.

HR.

Ranma blinked as he heard something strange coming over his radio. "Is that?" He muttered, disbelieving. "It is!" He said, now just wondering what Captain Gloval was thinking. Coming over almost all frequencies, was music from Minmei's first album.

Strangely, the music actually seemed to have an effect on the Enemy battle pods. They seemed to stop in space, as if the pilots had stopped to listen. A few of they're friendly battle pods did the same but most of them continued to fight. Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, the Macross's squadrons went back to attacking the now stationary battle pods.

This state did not last for a very long time, however, the number of enemy pods was severely decreased during the time that they sat stationary.

This did not seem to be enough, as even without most of they're battle pods, the larger battle cruisers were dangerous. They fired reflex cannons, pegging several Veritechs and many more of the less maneuverable allied battle pods. They were also bombarding the SDF-1, which didn't want to put up the ODB for fear of it overloading, and Bretai and Azonia's flag ships.

HR.

Captain Gloval's expression was grim as he held his pipe in his hand. Sammy, realizing that this was an incredibly important battle, decided not to comment.

"How many of ours are left?" Gloval asked, tensely.

Kim young responded. "we've lost all of Gold and Blue. Vermilion's mostly gone as well."

Gloval swore. "Commander Lang, I'm afraid we'll have to carry out plan B."

Emil Lang nodded. "Understood." His voice sounded defeated as he typed away at his console.

Lisa blinked. "Plan B?" She asked, puzzled.

Gloval looked grimly at Lisa. "You will find out."

HR.

Ranma continued fighting the Zentraedi battle pods, flying through large crowds of them. Although a very large amount of the fighters had been taken out by the initial attacks and "Operation Minmei," the rest had recovered and they were still a very powerful force. This was the largest battle Ranma had ever been in He had destroyed several battle cruisers himself with his laser cannon and his chi reserves were almost critically low but he knew that he had to fight on. Akane may still be alive, and Nabiki and Kasumi, His parents… they were all still depending on him. No matter what they had done, they all still needed him. And of course, there was Lisa.

Suddenly, Ranma was brought out of his thoughts of the battle by a cry for help. "This is Skull lead. I need some help here."

Looking over, Ranma saw three Battle pods on Rick hunter's tail. "Hold on Rick. I'm coming." He said, as he pushed all of his power into his thrusters. Blazing forward, Ranma took aim at one of the three pods and shot. It blew up in a cloud of debris. Unfortunately, he was too late as the second and third battle pods had already fired. Both scored direct hits on Rick, who was getting tired from the constant battle.

"Aw, Damn it! My systems are failing! I can't…" Rick's voice fizzled out as his Veritech disintegrated.

"No!" Ranma yelled, shooting the other two pods into wreckage. "Damn it Rick, No!"

HR.

Roy Fokker watched in stunned silence from an engineering bay, looking up at a television that was showing the macross's external cameras. "Little brother.." He breathed, witnessing Rick's death. He collapsed to the floor, as close to tears as he had ever been.

HR.

Ranma looked on in horror as another of his friends died by the hands of the Zentraedi. He couldn't take it any more. First Hiro, then Roy was badly wounded, then earth was almost destroyed, and now this. Ranma snapped. Anyone in a Veritech or with any chi sensitivity could feel it. Ranma's Veritech let out a massive shockwave of Chi, mingled with reflex energy. The chi was bright yellow, laced with flickering lines of red. When it came in contact with a battle pod, it vaporised it. Strangely enough, any friendly units that were in range seemed to be unaffected.

After this show of power, Ranma's Veritech blurred into motion. Ranma subconsciously drew in every bit of power he had, including one piece that was almost always buried. Three long blades of light extended from Ranma's Veritech's hands as it switched to battleoid mode. He held the hands up, crossed the blades and charged straight at the massive lead enemy ship.

As Ranma charged, He screamed. "You WILL PAY!" Everyone onboard the SDF-1 and in any friendly craft heard Ranma's cry of fury, as it had been automatically broadcast over all frequencies.

HR.

Lisa gasped as she saw Ranma tear into the enemy fleet. He was like some sort of wild animal. He just slammed into battle cruisers and came out the other side with half of the innards torn out. His Veritech's massive battle aura just seemed to deflect any reflex energy beams or missiles that hit it and do even more damage.

"Oh my god." Gloval muttered. "hold off on plan B."

Lang nodded, his look of relief evident.

Everyone on the bridge watched Ranma's furious rage with an odd mixture of fascination and horror. It had appeared that he had gone completely off the deep end and he was unleashing all of his fury at the enemy. Nothing got past him. No battle pod could out manoeuvre Ranma as he flew his plane as if G force and human reflex limitations were not a factor. Lang's Reflexometer showed Ranma's synchronization as a solid blue bar, which, he kept repeating over and over again , was impossible.

HR.

Ranma saw it. The leader of the enemies. The one that he had to destroy. It floated there, shooting at the SDF-1, and Lisa. He had to stop it. Boosting his already extremely powerful battle aura to new heights, he flew full speed into the enemy leader's ship. The last thing supreme commander Dolza saw was an intense flash of light as Ranma's Veritech passed through the bridge of his ship, cutting down. When it hit the power core, Dolza's ship exploded, sending a massive shockwave outwards that crippled almost every other ship in the area. There was no sign of Ranma.

HR. (1.)

Ranma Saotome flew his Veritech towards the large battle ship in the distance. Pulling all of his reflex energy forward, he focused it, along with his Chi, into a solid whitish blade of power at the front of his machine. Slamming into the battle ship, Ranma could almost see the faces of it's bridge crew as he tore through. He plummeted through the bridge floor, headed for a spot in the centre of the ship where his Chi sense said it's main reactor was. As his Veritech slammed through deck after deck of the massive battleship, Ranma began to pull some energy away from his cutting edge and back towards him. He couldn't get enough to perform a space fold of the Veritech… but he had one other option.

HR.

Commander Lisa Hayes watched in astonishment and a little fear as her boyfriend's Veritech slammed into the enemy flag ship. A few seconds later, the flag ship was obliterated by it's own reactor going up in a massive explosion.

Ranma's Veritech was nowhere to be seen, apparently having been vaporized by the explosion that had destroyed the flagship. "Oo… no." Lisa said, her face filling with fear. "Ranma. Sammy, can you detect Ranma's Veritech's radio signal?" Lisa asked, desperate for the answer.

Sammy porter looked down to her console and tapped a few buttons. She looked up sadly. "No Commander. Captain Saotome's plane isn't transmitting."

Lisa slumped to the ground, starting to cry. Suddenly, a voice interrupted her grieving. "Hey Lisa. Whatcha cryin for?"

Whipping her head around, Lisa stared into the eyes of a pigtailed Veritech pilot, who was leaning against a wall of the bridge. "Ranma!" She cried, throwing herself at the martial artist.

Ranma caught Lisa with some difficulty. "I'm Ok. See?" He laughed and hugged her as she buried her face in his shoulder and cried.

Sammy porter reluctantly spoke up. "I'm sorry to interrupt this moment but Commander Bretai is signalling. Apparently without the Flag Ship, he and Commander Azonia were able to convince the remaining enemy battle ships to surrender."

Captain Gloval smiled. "Good. Thank them for all there help and tell them that I will contact them later."

Sammy nodded and turned to her console.

Lisa had pulled herself together somewhat by this point and was only sniffling a bit. Ranma was still holding her, however the strain of even her small weight after his exertions in the Veritech was becoming visible on his face.

"Commander." Captain Gloval spoke up. "You may wish to let Captain Saotome go before he collapses." He then chuckled.

Lisa blushed and let Ranma go, whereupon he slumped to the ground. "Spacefoldin' without a Veritech is REALLY hard, y'know?" Ranma commented, laughing.

Lisa just laughed.

HR.

Lin Minmei sat in the white dragon restaurant, crying. She had just seen Rick hunter shot down before her very eyes. On top of that, her friend Ranma had seemed to go insane after Rick's death and went in on the lead enemy ship in a suicide run. She had lost the man she loved and her best friend in one day. Suddenly, Minmei was brought out of her depressed thoughts by the sound of the White Dragon's front door opening.

Ranma spoke up. "I'm… sorry Minmei."

Minmei looked up, surprised. Ranma stood there, in the front of the White Dragon, looking like he had been run over by a car or two but still alive. "Ranma?" Minmei asked, tentatively. "I thought you were dead!"

Ranma shook his head. "I got out in time. I just wanted to come and see how you were doing, and tell you that I tried. I really did." He sounded almost as depressed and angry at himself as he had when Hiroshi got shot down.

Minmei blinked. Ranma thought that this was all his fault. She was just glad that one of them had made it but She was still very sad about Rick, and it showed In her voice when she spoke next. "It's Ok Ranma. You did the best you could. I understand." She choked down a sob.

Ranma frowned but reluctantly turned and left the Dragon. Captain Gloval had ordered him to go to the Med Lab and he was technically disobeying orders just by coming to the Dragon to see Minmei. Not to mention that Lisa would be worried sick if she showed up at the Med Lab and he wasn't there. "Sorry Minmei. I gotta go down to the Med Lab before Lang and Lisa kill me."

Minmei actually laughed as she said, "See you Ranma."

HR.

Ranma flew through the skies over Japan in a VF-1R that he had borrowed from Roy, and hit his Radio. "Lead to flight 1. you two take the outlying areas and I'll get Tokyo."

Wild Horse, as well as what was left of the other squadrons, had been sent from the Macross to look for survivors of the bombardment. Lisa had objected rather Vocally to Ranma flying again so soon after the last battle, but he had managed to calm her down.

Ben and Max acknowledged Ranma's orders and flew off to the outlying regions of what had been a major city. Now, it was just a large mass of destroyed buildings and melted metal. The Tokyo tower had been knocked down by a shockwave, taking out several blocks around it and entire wards were now just jumbled messes of rock. As Ranma flew through the devastation, something hit on his Chi radar. A small, flickering Chi signal, coming from the Nerima ward.

Ranma spun his Veritech and slammed his thrusters forward. If someone was alive in Nerima, there was hope that it was one of his friends.

HR.

Kasumi Tendo sat in a small triangular gap made by a large cement pillar that had fallen over the "Martial artist proof" wall that she and her sister Nabiki had hidden behind. Nabiki, her lower body pinned under a large piece of wood, twitched slightly.

"Kasumi, do you think anyone's coming?" She asked, her throat dried and cracked from the lack of fresh clean air in the two sisters' prison.

"I don't know, Nabiki. Just please hang on alright?" Kasumi said, her usually calm and contented sounding voice now sounding tense and worried. When the youngest of the three Tendo sisters, Akane, had thrown the other two behind this barrier, only to be picked up and slammed into a nearby house by the shockwave, she had made a mistake when pushing Nabiki. As a result, the middle Tendo sister had landed half in and half out of the protected area created by the specially reinforced wall and had had a large piece of debris land on her lower body. Kasumi wasn't nearly as good at medicine as doctor Tofu but she knew that Nabiki did not have long to live.

The two sisters looked up as they heard a sound that they had only heard once before. It was the sound of a Veritech as it landed nearby. Then a voice rang out. "I'm an RDF officer. I'm here looking for survivors! I know someone's around here so if you can hear me, respond!"

Kasumi blinked. "Ranma-Kun?" She asked, astonished.

Nabiki chuckled softly before wincing in pain. "Saotome's back."

Kasumi began to yell "We're over here! Help!" and heard the sounds of Ranma's feet as he walked over to the large pile of Debris that they were trapped inside of. Kasumi and Nabiki heard a loud explosion, and a part of the mountain of Debris shattered, revealing daylight and the smiling face of Ranma Saotome.

"Kasumi!" He said, seeing the woman sitting on the ground. "Are you Ok?"

Kasumi nodded. "I'm fine Ranma, but Nabiki is hurt badly."

Ranma poked his head further into the small hole that Kasumi was sitting inside of, taking note of the other girl who was trapped under a large wooden beam. "Hmm. I don't think I should move that thing without a Med team here. It could hurt her worse."

Kasumi nodded and Ranma ran back to his Veritech to call the Medics.

HR.

Doctor Ono Tofu sat in the Helicopter, fidgeting with the straps of his seat. Having been recruited by RDF medical for treatment of survivors, he was now on his way to Nerima ward where someone had reported a severely injured woman. He just hoped that it wasn't Kasumi. As he looked down at the wreckage of Tokyo, he saw that the Nerima ward was almost completely obliterated. Furinkan High was just a massive crater and the restaurant district seemed to have been hit with a direct beam strike. The Neko-Hanton was completely destroyed and a small office building next to Ukchans had fallen on top of it, crushing it. His old Clinic was still standing, although it was on fire, and He began to feel dread in the pit of his stomach as he realized that the helicopter was headed in the direction of the Tendo Dojo.

As the helicopter landed, Tofu saw Kasumi. Fortunately, she looked only slightly dirty and was standing next to Ranma. Ranma was yelling something. "She's over there!" He pointed at a large pile of debris leaning against a wall. "I didn't wanna move her in case I hurt her."

Tofu nodded as he walked towards Ranma. "Thank you Ranma. We'll take it from here." Walking up to the pile of debris, Tofu saw Nabiki Tendo, laying with her lower body crushed beneath a large piece of wood. Gesturing Ranma over to help him, he got Nabiki out from under the beam and onto a stretcher. As the other medics loaded her onto the Helicopter, Tofu walked over to Ranma and Kasumi.

"Is she gunna be alright, Doc?" Ranma asked, looking worried.

Tofu nodded. "She'll live. It's a good thing you didn't move her before we got here however."

Kasumi smiled. "Thank you Doctor Tofu." She stepped forward and hugged him. Doctor Tofu's glasses fogged for just a second before clearing.

"Well," Ranma said, showing his knack for bad timing. "The medics are getting ready to go, n' I can't take you two back in my Veritech so you should probably get going."

Tofu nodded, taking Kasumi by the arm and leading her to the Helicopter.

HR.

Kasumi Tendo paced in front of the Macross's med Bay doors as Ranma and Lisa sat on the ground nearby. "Kasumi. Relax." Ranma said. "Commander Lang and the Doc know what they're doing."

Kasumi stopped pacing and started ringing her hands.

Lisa leaned over to Ranma. "So, why are we here?"

Ranma shrugged. "I'm the one who found them so I feel kinda responsible for seeing that they're Ok. Not to mention that Kasumi is a very nice person and even Nabiki is tolerable."

Lisa blinked. "Tolerable? I don't want to know, do I?"

Ranma nodded.

A few minutes later, Doctor Tofu walked out of the Med Bay doors, pushing Nabiki in a wheel chair. Kasumi ran up and hugged her younger sister and Ranma and Lisa just sat and smiled.

HR.

He walked through the halls of the SDF-1, lost as always. He was in cursed form, snuffling through the corridors and trying to pick up a familiar scent to guide him somewhere. 'I'm gunna shi shi hokodan that janitor next time I see him.' He thought, bumping into a large glass door. Looking up, he saw the sign of the "White Dragon" restaurant. He could get hot water there. Tapping the glass of the restaurant's window with his front trotter, he waited for a response.

HR.

Minmei sat, thinking about Rick. She had been doing that since she had seen his Veritech explode, almost twelve hours ago, and she was still doing it now. She was brought out of her closed loop of thought by a sound. It almost sounded like someone knocking on the restaurant's front door, but the place still had the open sign up so why would someone knock? Shrugging, she got up and walked towards the noise.

Seeing the little black piglet sitting out front, Minmei blinked. 'Mr. Hibiki?' She thought, opening the door. The piglet bweed happily as it ran into the front room of the restaurant. Minmei smiled. Even if he was really a human, Ryoga made a pretty cute looking piglet. Picking him up, she asked. "Do you want some hot water "P-Chan?""

Ryoga squealed indignantly and Minmei giggled. "I'm sorry Mr. Hibiki. Just a second." Setting him down, Minmei walked into the kitchen of the restaurant and came out with a glass of water. Averting her eyes, she pored it over the pig, turning him back into a man.

"You can look back now." Ryoga said, having changed back into his clothes in less than 3 seconds.

"how do you do that?" Minmei asked, curiously.

Ryoga just shrugged. "So, what's wrong with you?" He asked, having been lost in the bowels of the ship for the last day and a half and not seeing the battle.

Minmei blinked. "Wrong?"

Ryoga nodded. "You aren't projecting a visible aura but I can feel the depression Chi you're generating right now. It's actually pretty close to my usual levels."

Minmei sighed. "Rick died in an attack a little while ago the war is apparently over, or at least that's what Captain Gloval said over the P.A a little while ago but Rick was taken out in the last battle." She sniffed back a tear at saying that.

"Erm, I'm sorry to hear that." Ryoga said. "Well, I guess you and me're in the same boat now huh?"

Minmei looked at Ryoga, confused. "Huh?"

"Well, I lost Akane to Kuno…and you lost Rick to the Zentraedi. A bit different I know but..." He shrugged helplessly, not sure what he had been getting at.

The two of them sat in the Dragon for the next little while, talking back and forth and telling stories, until Ryoga decided he'd better get going to the Launch bay so that he could get there by tomorrow. Minmei laughed at this and said, "I hope to talk to you again soon, Ryoga."

HR.

The SDF-1 put down on earth the next day, somewhere near the remains of old Tokyo. Nabiki was eventually let out of the Med Bay, however she was permanently paralysed from the waist down. Doctor Tofu seemed to no longer have his nervous stuttering problem around Kasumi and they were becoming closer. The Zentraedi and Meltraedi who had survived the war were Micronized and helped the Humans begin rebuilding the earth's Civilization. Commander Lisa Hayes was promoted to Captain of the SDF-1 as Captain Gloval was now the highest ranking military official left in the UEG Military and was needed for administration. Ryoga and Minmei were seen together on a regular basis, the only problem with that was that Ryoga seemed to transfer his problem with directions to Minmei. Thankfully, Reko, Brun and Kunda were still there to keep the white dragon afloat during it's owner's unscheduled wanderings.

HR - THREE WEEKS LATER.

"Ranma, Come on." Lisa Hayes said as she pulled on her boyfriend's arm.

"Just a sec." Ranma muttered, straightening his rank badge.

"Look Ranma. Now I know you're just stalling." Lisa said, exasperated.

"I'm sorry Lisa. You know how I feel about these things. I'm just waitin for the crazed lost guy to bash down the wall." Ranma said, sighing.

"Look Ranma. Nothing's going to go wrong. This isn't Nerima." Lisa comforted, patting Ranma on the back.

Ranma sighed. "Alright Lisa. I'm ready. Let's go."

Grinning, Lisa Hayes grabbed Ranma Saotome's hand and dragged him out of the dressing room in the main hall. Going back to where she was SUPPOSED to stay while Ranma came out and walked up to the front, Lisa waited until Admiral Gloval grabbed her arm. "Are you ready, Lisa?" Gloval asked, smiling.

Lisa nodded and Admiral Gloval began walking her down the Isle to Ranma's position.

Ranma was fidgeting and looking around the room wildly but stayed calm… until a loud explosion reverberated from the wall next to the alter. "Where the hell are we now!" A female voice exclaimed, as Minmei glared at Ryoga.

"We're… erm… here." Ryoga said, pointing at the crowd of people looking at them.

Minmei blushed and walked through the hole, taking a seat next to Kasumi Tendo in the front row.

Ranma's thoughts were, 'What'd I tell her?'

Lisa's thoughts were, 'Well, he warned me.'

Shrugging, Lisa kept walking, making it to Ranma up at the front. The rest of the Ceremony went without incident.

TO BE CONTINUED.

(1.) Y'know, this scene change was a lot more dramatic when it wa the end of a chapter.

If you'd like, stay tuned for the 'Author's Afterword,' A commentary on this fic, its beginnings, and its possible future.


	14. Weebee Rants

Author's Afterword.

Female Voice:This chapter is almost entirely made up of notes and non-sense regarding the fanfic. It's here because, in the very rear-most part of his soul, Weebee refuses to be an analytical human being. In other words, he refuses to have a fanfic of his end on Chapter 13. Personally, I think the idiot should have PLANNED so that it didn't happen that way, but I'm just one of his muses, so what do I know?

Weebee: Misato, could you please shut up?

Female voice, now identified as Misato: Sure thing, boss.

Weebee: Ahem. As much as I hate to admit it, the annoying and half drunk voice in my head is correct. I know this thing is against FFN's rules in roughly 100 different ways, but I'll endeavor to put enough story related content in here to keep it at least related. Think of this as RDF-Life's 'Red Cross Book."

First, I guess, should be a history of this thing. This, actually, wasn't the first bit of fanfic I ever wrote. The first fanfic I ever wrote was a particularly bad Star Trek Voyager effort. Fortunately for me, it never got onto the internet and I killed it with fire relatively quickly.

This was my second effort, and it really showed, but it also held a point of pride with me that, I suppose, it still does. This point is that, originally, this fic was written in 37 days. Given its quality, that's strangely believable. It was done over the summer break of… hmm, I think it was 2005, while I was on vacation at my grand-mother's place in a different province, and was using a computer that could charitably be described as elderly. I had a copy of Corel business suite that was labeled 1996, which I can't for the life of me remember where it came from, and a staggering amount of free time with nothing else to do.

Oh, yeah. I also had a VERY small set of reading materials stored on my voice reader, consisting of girl days, Macross One Half and a few others. I think Ranmazoku was on there, as well. Two months of vacation with only this to read helped greatly in making me go insane enough to start authoring fanfic myself, and as Tail-Kinker once said to me in a moment of Private Messaged communication, the derivativeness from his work is rather evident. He doesn't seem to mind, though, so there it goes.

ANYWAYS, I'm rambling here. Suffice it to say, I wrote the whole thing in the second month of that summer's vacation, using Macross One Half and a set of episode guides and such that I'd found while digging around on Google. This, as can be imagined, lead to several glairing inaccuracies, but I'll get to them later.

After this fic was done, I turned to other projects, leaving it pretty much dead until early fall of 2006. It was then I tried to write 'Chapter 33,' which was the start of 'Book 2' of this fic. That, of course, lead me to have to re-read the whole bloody thing.

I never said I was a great author, and in fact I consider my current work as mediocre at best, but this… This SUCKED!

I Immediately pulled it down, for an eventual re-write. Anyone who knows me, or has even been following my writing for any length of time, will know that I tend to put things off. That re-write took until somewhere in May of this year, and it never really got off the ground. You can see its remnants in Chapter one of this posting.

Part of the reason I even remembered that this thing existed, was because people wouldn't leave me alone about it. I'd get a new message about it every two weeks or so, and obligingly send out a copy of the text files I keep in my archive. It was some time last month, when the seventeenth or so person contacted me for a copy, that I thought things were getting just a little stupid. I sent him a PM telling him to wait a few hours, and chapters 1-3 appeared within a couple hours.

Yeah, that's pretty well this fic's story in a nutshell.

Oh, an interesting anecdote about all the people contacting me is that this fic can be found on Google, and rather easily at that. I can't exactly remember when or even IF I did this, but there is a copy of the original, notes, spelling errors and minor plot holes in-tact, sitting at Ranchan and Co's. If you're morbidly curious, search Ranchan crossing bridges on Google and you'll find the site.

Just goes to show how many people will go ask an author for something rather than, y'know, searching for it for thirty seconds.

Anyhow, Moving on.

A few people have asked me, 'Why did you take this down?' or said 'This isn't that bad.' Well, I'm about to try and emulate a third-person reviewer to say precisely why I said it was so bad when I took it down.

Firstly, it's so obviously derivative that it isn't funny, though I mentioned that above. A lot of the events were particularly unskilled rewrites of the show itself or plots from other Robotech Fanfics, which is kind of understandable since I didn't really understand a lot about the characters in question to begin with.

Speaking of the characters… Although this was mitigated to some degree through small scale tweaks to the chapters, I originally proceeded to destroy every last one of them. It was, and still is, expected that I would butcher Robotech's cast. I mean, Robotech butchered them during the translation from Macross to begin with, and I hadn't even seen the butchered versions. Given that, plus my at the time hatred of Rick Hunter for no apparent reason, I'm going to skip over them.

Ranma 1/2's characters, THOSE I had no excuse for. I consider myself a bit of an encyclopedia on the series, or at least as much of one as my fractured memories can allow, and what I did in this thing makes me wanna bash my head off of the nearest wall.

Ranma: Ranma wasn't that bad. I over-used his pride somewhat, and he suffers from 'Perfect Character' syndrome, which I think I still mildly suffer from when dealing with him. Even so, it was passable.

Akane: Akane, and her relationship with Ranma, were pretty banged up over the course of this thing. Firstly, I made the relationship with them smooth out with almost no exposition of how it was supposed to happen. Secondly, when she re-appears in chapter 19 I made her far too accepting of her idiot father's arrangement with Kuno. Hell, about the only thing related to her that I did RIGHT was her death in chapter 31!

Ryoga: Although I admit that the idea of a Ryoga who acts the way he does for reasons other than blind hatred is interesting, I blew the execution straight to hell. It should have been looked into much more deeply, and more of the fic should have focused on the lost boy. The fact that the pairing I set up for him was out of absolutely NOWHERE since he barely ever interacted with Minmei beforehand is almost forgivable compared to that. Oh, wait. It's NOT!

The next bad thing about this fanfic was the author's notes. Oh god, the author's notes. To put it in perspective, The new FFN word count system, which tends to round up for some inexplicable reason, registered the fic at around 85K words before this appendix. The original word counter, which was a lot more accurate, listed it as 89K. For those keeping score, that's at least 3.5 K words of notes on top of what I have in this version, and most of them were incredibly stupid. As an example, I spent three chapters worth of notes arguing flawed science with a group of reviewers. The killer was, I was wrong.

Also, how the hell did I forget Claudia grant? She's Roy's Love interest, and a rather important character in the show. Yes, in this fanfic she apparently doesn't exist.

Couple with this the spelling errors, which I still make from time to time, the NIGHTMARISH formatting of the first ten chapters, and the series-based plot holes, you can see why I consider this fic an 'old shame.' Still, I guess some people liked it, so I hope you enjoy the marginally improved rewrite.

The Chapter titles.

You may have noticed that when your author or story alerts notified you of this story's updates, they provided some... odd... chapter titles. These were mostly to entertain me. Still, I feel that I need to explain the jokes, even if I'm the only one who'll find them funny.

Chapter 1, It came from Weebee's Archive.  
If I recall, this was a take-off of an old movie title, as well as the title of a Goosebumps book I read once.

Chapter 2, Chapter titles are fun!  
Just a random comment, and when I decided to give all the other chapters odd titles.

Chapter 3, The Fanfic that wouldn't die.  
This one's a take-off of the MST3K episode/bad movie, 'The thing that wouldn't die,' and is a rather accurate comment on what I think of this fic in general.

Chapter 4, Ze Goggles, Zey do Noting!  
This is a quote from the Arnold Schwarzenegger parody from the simpsons, during the radioactive man episode.

Chapter 5, SPOON!  
This is the battle cry of my favorite super-hero, the tick!

Chapter 6, Im in ur fic, stelin ur plot.  
This is a mutation of a common meme, usually used on LOLCatz pictures.

Chapter 7, I herd u liek Mudkipz?  
Yet another meme, this time completely intact. Don't say this on a forum.

Chapter 8, Warp 9 sir? Too slow!  
A shortening of the chorus of a queen parody that involved Star Trek TOS, and involved an operatic spock. It was epic.

Chapter 9, Lolcatz iz cute.  
I was running out of ideas, and it is!

Chapter 10, My Hometown's a crater.  
Well, it is. I used to live in Hamilton, which is just a short drive from Toronto. The explosion in Chapter 10 probably torched it.

Chapter 11, IT'S OVER 9000!!!  
A rather notorious example of over-dramatic dubbing.

Chapter 12, Planet of the Apes Reject.  
This one needs some explaining. In the original version of this set of chapters, the ending went a little differently. I had Lisa, Ranma and Rick re-enact the ending to planet of the apes. Needless to say, the idea was stupid, and hence rejected.

Final Chapter, The day the Fanfic died.  
This chapter's a reference to a pretty neat song. If you don't recognize it, think "Byebye Miss American Pie."

Next up, "BAD SEQUEL SCIENCE THEATER 2032!

No, this isn't a MST3K rip-off, just a set of sequel ideas I had for this when I'd first finished it. The list is in chronological order, by the way.

1. The Nerima short. This was going to be written to explain precisely WHY Tendo decided to engage his daughter to Tatewaki Kuno, and keep people from wanting to kill me for what I did to Akane by explaining why she couldn't stop it. Nothing really wrong with it, but it just never happened.

2. The alternate universe fic. I always think up ideas that would allow me to re-introduce characters I've modified to the Canon universe. In this one, Ranma's space-fold attempt in chapter 10 goes south, and he ends up popping out of a dimensional rift in space around earth, with Ben's damaged Veritech in toe. Unfortunately, he'd managed to jump dimensions rather than distance, and it was a universe in which Ranma'd stayed on earth and the Robotech wars hadn't happened. Unfortunately, I had NO idea where to go from there, so it died horribly.

3. The Future fic. Basically, RDF Life:The Next Generation. This is what Chapter 33 was starting, though I don't have the chapter anymore, so I can't show it to you. Earth's been at piece for about twenty years, and they've successfully repaired the SDF-1. Lisa's her captain, and Ranma's been assigned as the leader of one of the ship's fighter squadrons in order to baby-sit Admiral Sterling's daughter. I had a plot for this, but the plot docs got wiped with the chapter and I can't remember it.

4. The Gundam Crossover. A plot-derailment of the last idea, in which the newly-repaired SDF-1's fold system does something similar to idea 2, only this time it dumps everyone into the Gundam Wing timeline… right in front of barge's main cannon. Again, don't know why, but I wanna do a gundam wing Xover. Perhaps it's because almost all the series has for fan work right now is poorly written slashfic. Oh crap, I'm gunna get flamed for that.

Well, there they are, folks. Enjoy!

Misato: His mind's a scary place, readers.

Weebee: Yeah… uhuh. Moving on.

Well, I think that's everything for now. If you'll excuse me…  
(Weebee reaches off screen and returns with a BFG.) Get back here, you!

Misato: Ack!

(Shinji pokes his head on screen as the fanfic author runs after the dark haired woman.)

Shinji:Thank you for sticking around. (Winces as he hears Misato's side-arm going off.) I've got to go!

THE END.


End file.
